


The Animals We Hide

by Caliras



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Monster Falls, Cervitaur Dipper Pines, Clay Golem Soos, Dragon Fiddleford, Gargoyle Grunkle Stan, Gen, Gorgon Pacifica Northwest, Mermaid Mabel Pines, Monsterfalls AU - Freeform, Panic Attacks, Protective Dipper Pines, Protective Grunkle Stan, Sphinx Grunkle Ford, Tags May Change, Vampire Gideon Gleeful, Werewolf Wendy Corduroy, Zombie Robbie Valentino
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-28 00:12:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 35,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13259523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caliras/pseuds/Caliras
Summary: Mabel and Dipper return to Gravity Falls for summer again, when an enchanted stream changes the inhabitants of Gravity Falls into various mythical creatures. They now have to figure out how to deal with their new bodies and how to turn back.





	1. Prologue

Dappled sunlight shines on the peaceful forest floor with soft colors, filtered through by the thick canopy above it. Birds chirp lazily, flitting in and out of trees, and squirrels sunbathe out in the open, undisturbed. Yet, none of this could even hope to deter Dipper from his newest quest. He was on a search for a flower that Mabel had talked about. You see, Dipper wanted to give her a gift after all they had been through this summer. Last summer at Gravity Falls had been one incredible and terrifying journey, but this one was fairly calm, if not frustrating and boring. Problems from last summer kept cropping up along with new projects (most of which were trying to get Ford caught up to this dimension), keeping them separated for most of the time they'd been here.

Fortunately, they were only a quarter the way through the summer when he realized that he wasn't spending as much time with his sister as he should. Noticing this, he wanted to make it up to her as well as apologize for being caught up in the whirlwind that is this place. He wanted to spend more time with her so she didn't feel left out again, and it would be disappointing if they traveled to this place only to not spend at least a little time together. Opening up the second journal, he focused his attention onto a picture of the flower. Wait, he should probably explain how one of the journals is in his backpack first.

Well, apparently when Grunkle Stan found out he had one of the journals, he copied it with the copier machine, and kept the original to himself. After Grunkle Ford got back from the portal, and all the journals were revealed, Grunkle Stan realized that Dipper would want to study them as well (which he did). So he made copies of all the journals, so that his brother wouldn’t freak out if something happened to one of them. In a stroke of luck, Bill burned the copies while the originals stayed safe in the newly demon-proof shack. So even if Bill knew they were there, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. Once Ford found out what happened, he called Stan a genius (Dipper wishes he’d been able to get a picture of Stan’s face) and since then only brought copies out of the shack.

He also made water-proof cover for them, since the copies melt in water. Although, if you really needed to get rid of a copy quickly, all you had to do was either open it up and dunk it, or take off the cover. But enough about the journals, he decided, studying the picture. It was easy to for him to see why she had taken a liking to it, since according to the book, it was a bright pink, but whenever it was struck directly with light, it almost looked to be a miniature rainbow. There also were rumors of it having glitter in the stem, but Dipper doubted that.

Unfortunately, this fabled flower was incredibly rare and the appearances would range from a year to seven years in-between, the last sighting having been four years ago. But luckily, the majority of the documented appearances of this flower came from Gravity Falls. Looking at his map again, he sighed heavily and scribbled out yet another path that proved fruitless, looking at the parts of the map that were not inked out, he couldn’t help but groan. He had been searching for it for nearly a week with no success, and there were only a few places left unmarked- the lake, most mountains, and a small part of the forest that was deep in gnome territory. Glancing down at the map while chewing on his pen, he decided to look through the small part of the forest seeing as it was the closest. Sighing, he closed the map along with his copy of the second journal -which had most of the information about the flower- then threw them into his bag. Slinging it onto his back, he set off towards the gnome forest.

~~~~~~~

Gnomes, he decided, were jerks. This wasn’t an unknown fact, but one he felt needed repeating. He hadn’t even made it two steps into the forest before one began to shout at him and now he’d just been bitten by one! He shook the annoyingly persistent gnome off, trying to stick to the small trail he’d found. The gnome hissed at him before it scurried off into the underbrush like a deranged rat. He shuddered. Yeesh. The sun hadn’t gone down too much since he’d started, so he continued on, marking things of interest down on the map, knowing he’d check it out later. Glancing up from making another note, he sensed that the trail was widening, not a significant amount, but just enough for him to notice. The sunlight was growing on the ground, and Dipper didn’t have to look to know that the leaves above him were getting more sparse. It didn't take long before he stumbled into a small clearing.

The ground beneath him was so think in grass that it felt almost like carpet through his shoes, with flowers growing in large, vibrant patches. The sun shone down on the assembly of colors in wide, bright bands, leaving the clearing warm and bright. The smell of the flower’s perfume drifted up in the air, not stifling like it would be if it was sheltered. A breeze gently pushed the flowers down, then let them spring back up again, dispersing most of their scent. The entire place held a drowsy, peaceful atmosphere, perfectly at odds with the rest of the small, strange town. Beginning to walk again, Dipper even noticed a fair-sized stream, pristine and gentle- like the rest of this hidden glade.

Paying the rest of this dream-like garden no mind other than to jot it down on the map, he began to look through the flowers. He hoped to find the rare plant within this peaceful area, since seem like the perfect place to be for any type of flora. After all, if he was a flower this is where he’d want to be. The process was slow-going, even if he knew the radiant flower should stand out, there was just so many flowers and colors. He doubted he could find a sunflower here in a timely manner. Stretching from his prolonged bent over position, a flicker of light dragged his gaze to a waterfall that dropped into a pool. Huh. How did he miss that? He must have gotten closer to the base of a mountain than he’d thought. The waterfall had four pools of water that glimmered in the light, and he almost shrugged it off before he examined it more closely. The third, lowest pool -other than the one at the bottom- would probably make a pretty good vantage point. Maybe then he’d be able to find the flower before the sun went down.

Walking over to the base of the mountain, he hauled himself up onto a small boulder to begin his ascent. He leapt from the large rock to a wide ledge, heart dropping as his sneaker caught on the lip and he slammed onto the ground. He took a few, wheezing breaths, stood up shakily, and then began to carefully scale the wall. Luckily, the cliff-side wasn't too sheer so it wasn’t too difficult to climb. He made his way closer to the waterfall, but not close enough to slip on the moss that grew generously next to the water. Arms near trembling, he reached for a high ledge and dragged himself up it, and sat down. Breathing heavily, he shook out his arms, grit his teeth and resumed his ascent.

Soon he had reached the plateau that held the third pool with heavy arms, and very damp clothes. Resolving to work out more, or even hike, he rolled onto his back to catch his breath. When the shaking subsided, he clumsily got back up and went to the pool to fill up his bottle. It wasn’t quite empty yet, but better safe than sorry, right? After it was filled and filtered -thanks foresight-, he went back near the cliff side and looked down. Scanning everything as thoroughly as possible, he was mildly discouraged to find nothing. Sighing, he turned back to the waterfall, then paused, and peered closer. Fully turning his body towards it, he noticed light peeking out from behind the spray. Curiosity piqued, he wandered up to it, scrutinizing it closely. Slowly, Dipper stretched his arm through the cascading water, testing the limits, and, finding nothing that stopped his arms path, he stuck his head through. A seemingly endless cavern greeted him, a gently glowing maw of stone. He stepped through, knowing full well his waterproof backpack would save anything important in there.

Dipper, now fully drenched, looked closer at his surrounding and found that he was in a sparsely lit cave with glittering gems that reflected light sporadically against the walls. The walls themselves were covered in a thick moss that grew around said gems, smoothing out the entrance, as the plant faded the deeper it went. The air dragged through his lungs, freezing cold and thick with dust. Coughing to clear it out, he decided that the cave had probably lain untouched for years. After regaining his breath, he stepped further into the cave, noticing abruptly that the stone floor soon gave way to soft sand as he stumbled. Further exploration showed small bioluminescent plants scattered against the walls, giving off weak light. He quickly marked down some notes so he continue his exploration, then walked further into the cave. Coming to a split end, he chose right and walked through it. Trekking forwards revealed a dead end, so he turned back, then went down the left. When it became clear to him that these tunnels were a winding maze, he began marking off all the dead-ends with x’s, using a stray piece of chalk that had somehow made its way into his backpack. Since Dipper also knew the importance of marking original tunnels to lead him back, he drew a circles with chalk that was a different color (seriously, how much chalk did he have in here) he marked off the tunnels that led the way back.

Coming to another three-pronged path, he sighed and turned left, intending to work his way to the right when he saw a faint light coming from the middle tunnel. Creating an O with the blue piece of chalk behind him, then he took the red one out of his pocket and headed forward. The further he went in, the brighter the light became. He finally came into a small cavern with light flooding the interior through a hand sized hole in the ceiling. Rainbows stripes lit up the walls, blossoming outward. Looking for the source his eyes fell upon the near-fabled plant he'd been looking for, shimmering hues dancing across it. Huh, he didn't think he'd find it in a cave. Walking over to the flower, he inspected it, jotting down new information about it. It looked like a rose with less petals, and the petals looked far sharper than a rose’s. Not to say they weren't still soft, just having the appearance of a spade. Dipper then snapped off a leaf from the side to test the rumor, and did indeed find glitter in it. However, it was still coated in the natural sap that fed plants, but he guessed that if the sap dried up it would be usable.

Taking a jar out of his bag, he filled it up with the rich soil around the flower, then he slowly and carefully uprooted it, and gently placed it inside, screwing the top back on and poking a few holes in it. Standing up, he was suddenly very glad he'd been marking every trail off, since there seemed to be countless tunnels staring back at him. Shoving it into his bag, he strolled peacefully through the dim tunnels, which were surprisingly peaceful. All too soon, he had reached the exit and was momentarily blinded by the natural sunlight. He let out a low hiss as he rubbed his eyes, just how long has he been in there? When he stopped seeing spots, he looked over the forest to once more take in the stunning sight, and then headed to the ledge. After he made his journey back down, he looked at the map, then at the time.

Oh no, he was out for way, _way_ longer than expected. Grimacing, he broke out into a run through the thick underbrush heading towards the shack. The trees flew past him in dull colors, his heart pounding as he cleared a log. He did not want to be late again, and make his family worry. He didn’t pay much attention to his surroundings anymore, simply focused on making it back in time. So it came as no surprise when he tripped on the gnarled roots of some nearby trees. Dipper couldn't help letting out a startled yelp as he fell, as he crashed face-first through the forest floor. Unfortunately, he had fallen down an incline with no signs of stopping. Tumbling downwards, his heart stopped for a moment when he could no longer feel the ground under him. Just as he had processed this heart-stopping feeling, he crashed in a river, which stopped his rapid descent. Thoroughly disoriented and soaking, he sat up the best he could in the shallow water to get his bearings.

Dipper first went through a self check, and -ow, that hurt- his entire body was sore and several places stung. Looking at his arms to see what had caused the stinging, he was not shocked to find several cuts along his arms. Since his legs were probably in the same shape, he decided not to check them yet, if it was anything major he would have felt it already. Looking around he spotted a low bank further along which would help him get up, as everywhere else was walled in and he didn't want to strain himself after the fall. Taking a step forward, he stumbled and fell into deeper water. Panicking now, he thrashed towards the surface, while the river seemed determined to keep him down. It made his clothes cling to him, and drained his energy. Breaking above the pulling water, he caught a few frantic gasps of air before he went under again. Disoriented, he kicked out, shooting towards the surface once again when he got way more power than he asked for. Making it above the surface yet again, he struggled to stay afloat even in the relativity calm waters. Through his panic driven mind, he realized the bank was in reach now and made a desperate grab for it for it.

Sinking his fingers into the grass and dirt, he soon realized the slippery grass wasn’t holding his weight at all. His hands slid uselessly through the grass and he began clawing at the ground, kicking his legs in a panicked, desperate motion. In his struggle, his hand caught onto a sturdy root, and he forced his body out of the water, arms shaking with the effort. Shivering as the adrenaline fell down, his thoughts turned numbly towards the flower and he brought it out. The flower was fine, with only a hairline crack that splintered up the side of the jar showed that it went though the fall at all. Still trembling, he brought the jar closer to his chest, curled up, and passed out.

~~~~~~~

When he woke up, he was still feeling sensitive to the events that had transpired, and he also felt sore. Very sore. He next thing he noticed it was way too dark out, and hurriedly checked the time, which read as two hours later. Crap. Gradually he became aware of a faint crackling, which was probably what woke him up in the first place.

He whipped around to find the source, and upon finding nothing, he remembered that he still had the walkie-talkie from last summer. Shucking off his back-pack, he rummaged around until he finally found it and brought it out. Man he really needed to clean this thing out or at least organize it, he mused while he brought it up to his ear. He barely made out the faint sounds of Mabel and Grunkle Stan through the static, discussing something that sounded like vampires? And a search party?

“Wha?” Dipper rasped, dry from fear, merged with all of the physical activity. Taking a long sip of water, he tried again.

“What’s going on? I only caught something about a vampire and a search party.”

The talking stopped for a heavy moment, but he could only assume they just heard a slight crackle. Then he heard the distinct sound of running and the muffled thump of someone grabbing the device.

“Dipper? Is that you, are you okay?” Mabel sounded panicked, so he rushed to calm her down.

“Yes, it's me, and yes I’m okay. Now would you mind telling me what you guys were talking about?”

“OHMYGOSH, OKAY, So-”

“When you disappeared, we found out that Gideon had been bitten by a vampire.” Stan cut through Mabel’s explanation realizing it would most likely end in a rant and half-finished stories. “He had been captured by a group of vampires that needed someone convincing to be on their side. Convincing as in, able to make an entire town willing to do most anything for you. Such as give up blood for a 'blood drive'. Of course Gideon fit that description pretty perfectly so they kidnapped him. Gideon refused their offer, as he is trying to become a better person. I still don't like him. Anyways, he had already been bitten, so they refused to let him go. He did manage to escape, and now they need someone else to take his place as their puppet. We were concerned about you having been captured, given the time frame, so we were about to organize a search party.”

“Whoa, so Gideon's a vampire? That's so cool! And weird. Definitely more weird. And vampires form groups?"

“Yeah, apparently they regularly form in groups so it's easier to hide. May seem a bit strange, but now it seems a bit easier to explain the many cults around. Now could you tell us where you are? Mabel's been worried."

“You've been worried too, Grunkle Stan!”

“Nah.”

“Just admiiiit it~”

“Nope.”

“Awh, come on!”

“Unlikely, but Dipper, where are you?”

Dipper paused to look around at his surrounding, then at his map. Tracing the path he took with his eyes, he made an educated guess.

“Somewhere in the woods, near the base of the mountains, I believe. I think the one that contains the Manotaur is the one I’m closest to”

“Alright, we’ll head over. Anything we need to know about?”

“Nah, I think that's it.”

“Alright we’re on our way!” Mabel exclaimed happily, then Dipper heard the golf cart starting up.

“Okay, see you soon”

Stashing everything back into his backpack along with the flower, Dipper looked around at his surroundings again, then tried to stand up. Huh. It didn't seem like he could stand up. He looked down at his legs, only to find them obscured by a fawn. Startled, he kicked out, the deer's legs twitching in response to his shuffling.

“Oops, sorry, sorry," Dipper whispered, "I'll be gone in a moment."

Taking it slower, Dipper stretched his legs gently, watching the young deer wake up too. Shifting till his feet were braced on the ground, he slowly lifted himself up. Turning his upper body to look at the deer, he saw it sitting(?) up. Its hind legs seemed to not be working, but he also couldn’t see its head.

"Oh, are you oka-," Dipper was abruptly cut off when he turned to try and see if it was hurt, and fell over.

A stinging sensation made itself known, so he must have opened up or agitated a wound when he fell, but where was it? It certainly wasn’t on his leg, but it felt oddly the same. His brain was screaming that something was wrong. Deciding to find wherever the cut was so he could tend to it, he went on a search for his legs. Lifting up the deer's legs to get a better look, he immediately gasped, dropping the leg. He-he **_felt_** that. That's not- that's not right. That's definitely not normal. Dread crept over him as he slowly lifted the legs again, hoping he was still disoriented, only to feel them move. Oh. Oh no. Horror drove ice into his vein and compelled him to check the hind legs only to find an open cut.

Ohno. Ohnononnonono. Adrenaline flooded over him in crashing waves, screaming at him, telling him him to do _something_. **_Anything_**. It blotted out all rational thoughts in thick, unyielding clouds, taking over his senses. His heart thumping way too loud, way too fast, his breathing heavy and labored. All his brain knew was that something was wrong, was bad, was unnatural in the highest sense. Newfound instincts took control quickly, with everything else clouded. It was the only thing functional, the only thing left. Blood pounded in his ears, louder than anything he had heard before. His mind filling only with thoughts of escapepanicwrongwrongwrongRUN **RUN _FLE_ _E_**. His vision was crumpling before him, black creeping around the edges, and before all train of thought fully left him, his mind faintly registered panicked hoof-beats.


	2. Chapter 2

Mabel liked to think she didn’t startle easily, but when an unknown creature jumped in front of the golf cart and crashed into a tree, well that was obviously an exception. Letting out an undignified squawk, she threw herself against Grunkle Stan as he turned the wheel sharply to avoid hitting the mystery beast. Slowing the cart down to a stop they looked where they had seen the fast figure. Only to find scattered, indistinguishable tracks, and several broken branches. Looking at each other they both seemed to understand that if Dipper was here, he’s either following this creature or he has been captured by it.

Revving up the cart, they followed the easy to track, messy trail the animal was creating. The shallow gouges littered the forest floor, with branches and twigs snapped off resting by them, or trampled. Many of the branches though, just hung limply at the sides of the trees. Stan slowed down the cart, trying to avoid the tracks, so that they didn’t get stuck. Trailing behind this beast, they soon realized that the path it was creating was sporadic, going in no particular direction. This revelation concerned Mabel, what if it was chasing Dipper? What if it knew they were following it and was trying to lose them? What if it- a bright flash of blue quickly snapped out of her panicking, looking at the direction she had seen it in, she turned to her Grunkle to point it out, only to see that Grunkle Stan had noticed it too and was already driving towards it.

Pulling up to where they had seen it, they looked at the ground to find Dipper's hat resting innocently upside down on the ground. Pulling the cart to a stop once more, Mabel hopped out to retrieve her brothers hat, when the sound of muffled thumping made her pause. Promptly realizing it could very well be the creature, or any beast really, she rushed to the hat, scooped it up, pivoted, then sprinted back towards the safety of the golf cart. She would have made it back, but as luck would have it, it was much faster than she had anticipated. An intimidating, frantic presence vaulted out from behind the bushes, startling her and making her fall to the ground. It towered above her from where she sat, frightened. Mabel instantly recognized that it was the same one that had leapt in front of their cart, but now that it was closer, she could just make out its general shape. Confused, it dug an uncoordinated circle in the ground with its hooves, and made a hasty retreat back into the forest.

“Grunkle Stan?” Mabel whispered, just loud enough for him to hear, while clutching the hat in a death grip.

“Yes, Mabel?” Her Grunkle replied, sounding a bit out of it, likely replaying what had just happened wondering what had just occurred.

“Do- do you think that that was- was Dipper?”

“I- I’m not sure. It could have been.”

Mabel slowly got to her feet, absentmindedly brushing the dirt off of herself while gazing at where it had disappeared. Newfound determination entered her eyes as she thought about Dipper, if he even was this creature, scared and alone. Turning in a clean, confident spin back towards the cart she walked to it with a new goal, to try and help the animal that seemed so vulnerable before. If it was Dipper they’d bring him back, if not they’d at least calm the poor animal down. Climbing into the cart, she buckled up while Grunkle Stan started the cart.

Stan seemed to know her new intentions, or perhaps he just held the same idea himself, and sped off towards the place it’d fled to. Mabel dragged her thumb over the brim of the hat absentmindedly, thinking about what she had seen moments earlier. The creature certainly looked like Dipper, but it had acted nothing like Dipper. Or at least nothing like she could imagine, he had always seemed to hold at least a spark of confidence in him. Worry festered in her until an odd sound brought her mind back into the present, it sounded weirdly like panicked bleating. Hearing this, Stan slowed down the cart, and began looking around with Mabel. When they got closer to the distraught sound, Grunkle Stan switched off the golf cart and they hopped out.

Following the desperate cry, they stumbled upon the animal caught between interlocking trees, chests heaving, and hooves scraping the ground. His hooves made small trenches into the dirt as he tried to free himself, in short, desperate motions. He was writhing and twisting against the rough bark, trying to escape, but only succeeding in wedging himself in deeper. The rough bark was beginning to break skin, and some blood had begun to make itself known on his flanks. Then she looked up at his face and tears welled up in her eyes at what she saw. It was Dipper, but he was lost in his fear, so much so that Mabel could barely see the part he’d hastily shoved away. His eyes were glazed over and had lost their sharp focus, looking far more animal than human.

The two of them stepped closer in unison, only faltering when his head snapped towards them, ears flicking forward in interest. His aggravated struggling slowed as he took them in, recognition flickering dimly in his eyes before ultimately fading back out. Mabel, feeling a bit braver, took a small step forward, but stopped when his hind leg gave out a quick, powerful blow into the dirt. This wasn’t an act of aggression, but rather one of fear which made tears prick behind her eyes, feeling useless against this new terror. Placing her hands in a calming gesture, she made a more cautious approach, trying not to scare him. Stan held back, knowing that it would be counterproductive if he, a significantly larger figure, approached.

Dippers attention was now focused solely on his approaching sibling, tense, and ready to try to escape at any moment. When she felt that she was as close as she was going to get without him panicking again, she slowly lowered herself to the ground, trying to become as non-threatening as possible. It hurt Mabel to see him like this, so hurt and afraid. Yeah, he was chased by monsters on a regular basis, and yes sometimes he’d get hurt. But he looked for those monsters for fun, for adventure. That's why he pursued the journal in the first place, it was fun to him, a cool adventure. This though, this wasn’t fun. For either of them. Tense, silent minutes ticked by before he began to sniff the air, curiosity padding his suspicion. Taking this gesture as good sign, she began to speak, hoping against hope to calm him down, to bring her brother back.

“Hey, bro-bro? Do you remember the first time I saw claymation? When I hid in the laundry basket for hours, determined to not come out? But you sat with me anyways until I came out? Well, after I did come out, you told me that it couldn’t hurt me, that it was just on the TV. Then you said that if it even tried to hurt me, you would protect me.” A stray tear slowly rolled its way down Mabel's cheek as she sniffed, “ Then in an effort to cheer me up, we decided to bake a cake together. Though I think that it turned more into macaroni though.”

“Or what about before we came here? The first time? I had just been rejected for the first time. And you- and you used the rest of your allowance, that you we going to use for a book, and got ice-cream instead.” More tears made their way down her face, unnoticed as a she hiccuped softly. “You- you even watched cheesy dramas with me, though you say you don’t like them. I remember laughing at the badly written stories,” the lump growing in her throat choked her words, but only succeeded in making her even more determined to speak, “ but we both got really invested, even if we didn’t say anything. I think- I think we both knew though. It was a bit of a giveaway when we both gasped at the twist. Afterwards, we pillaged the house and built a blanket fort, deeming that no boys were allowed, other than you of course.”

Her voice was now breaking, as she trembled on the ground, spilling her heart out. “And then- and then we both promised we would be there for each other, no matter what. So now- so now I’m here for you, and I need you to be there for me, so please,” pleaded Mabel as her voice became garbled, nearly incomprehensible, “please come back. You’re scared right now, and that’s okay, I’d be scared too, but we’ll always be there for each other. Always. Just as we promised, so it’ll be okay. It’ll be okay.” Mabel stopped there, no longer able to speak, her sobs cutting into the silent, uncaring trees.

“Mabel?” came the weak reply.

She lifted her head to see her brother, also crying, as he fruitlessly tried to wipe his tears away. Relief tore through her, washing uncertainty away. She stood on shaking legs and made a staggering run over to him. Burying her damp face into his shirt, they stayed like that until their crying had subsided, and perhaps a bit longer. Drawing back she gave him a watery smile, which he readily returned. Stan took this as permission to walk over to them, but slightly hanging back as to not interrupt anything. Soon enough though, Dippers legs gave out, wedging him further into the trunks as he passed out. Gently, she removed his backpack, then stepped back slightly, letting her Grunkle pick him up.

Which he achieved by placing his arms around Dipper, lifting him up out of the trees, then placed an arm around a ribcage each. In silence they walked back to the golf cart, with Dipper resting peacefully in Stans arms. Glancing over at him, she was a bit surprised to see just how… small he appeared. And she knew he was bigger now with the new parts and all, but being carried by Stan, blood staining their clothes, just made her want to protect him from everything. Feeling this strong wave of protectiveness, she looked over to Stan to find that his expression matched what she was feeling. Huh. Was this how he felt all the time, or was this new? Remembering him wear the same expression dismissed the notion that this was a one time thing, and was a rather comforting thought.

All too soon, yet not quick enough, they made it to the cart, where she slid in and buckled her seat-belt out of habit. She placed his bag on the floor, while Grunkle Stan carefully set Dipper down by her, so that he could start the cart back up. Taking this opportunity, she surveyed the harm that had happened to him. Looking over him, she was relieved to see that all of the cuts were superficial, and while they will hurt, he’d heal in no time. Bruises were beginning to form across him in wide patches, red slowly marring his skin, also painful but not life-threatening. His fur most definitely hid bruising, but there was not much she could do about that. Looking at his new transformation, well, that was a different matter altogether. He seemed to be based off of a centaur, but with deer parts instead, and with deer ears which flicked in his sleep. Looking down at him, Mabel felt an irrational twinge of guilt.

Afterall, if she had been with him, this may not have happened at all. Thoughts colliding and turning in her head, she softly placed his hat back on his head, and allowed her mind to wander. Last summer, they had been at each others sides, like they always were, and although they had drifted a bit near the end, they had managed to patch it up. It should have been okay again. But, it seemed as if they were drifting again, and she did not like the implications of that. Especially if it ended up with one of them like this. Dippers ear twitched peacefully as they drove along, with Mabel still lost in thought. Maybe she should try to show more interest in her brothers ramblings and observations, which she considered to be boring. Then maybe he’d tell her more about his trips.

You see, she got it. She understood the need to create and observe. She understood most of his ramblings, though she had no desire to try and create her own theories. But she did like making stuff like sweaters and fun stuff, so she knew where he was coming from. She was just interested in different things. Patting his head absentmindedly, she was drawn back out of her mind by a bump in the road. Looking back over her brother, luckily still asleep, she sighed and looked at Stan, who had remained silent since they found him. His face gave nothing away, but the tight grip on the steering wheel, and tense shoulders certainly did.

“Hey, Grunkle Stan? What should we do?” Mabel asked, uncertainty rolling through her.

Without taking his eyes off the road, he -aiming for nonchalant- replied, “ For now, let's get him to my brother for his deer problem and then we’ll get him patched up.”

Mabel hesitated for a moment, then gave voice to an idea that had been plaguing her thoughts, “What if-what if we can’t turn him back?”

Pausing to look over at her, Stan softly replied, “We will, and if we can’t we will be there for him anyway.”

“Okay, Grunkle Stan,” Mabel says, curiosity and fear somewhat subdued, making her voice lighter, though not louder.

Dipper was still out after all, and she didn’t want to wake him up until he was back at the shack, and bandaged. The drive back was silent, with both of them thinking, trying to figure out what to do next. But, on the brightside, it was much less tense than it had been moments ago. Finally, they had made it back to the shack, fortunately with Dipper still sleeping. Now they could only hope Grunkle Ford could turn him back, or at least explain what had happened. Stan picked up Dipper again and lead the way to the shack, only pausing to let Mabel open the door. Which ended up shocking Wendy and Soos, who had been talking animatedly about Ducktective lore.

“Whoa, what's wrong with Dipper?” Wendy asked, trying to hide her concern and ultimately failing, eyes scanning over him as she tried to assess the injuries while also trying to process his new limbs.

“Yeah, dude, Dipper doesn’t look too good,” Soos added questioningly, his hand hovering, wanting to help, but restraining himself.

“We’re not sure yet, but he will be fine,” Stan quietly replied, arms tightening around Dipper protectively, though carefully enough not to hurt him.

Wendy and Soos gathered around the three, Ducktective forgotten, while Stan started towards the basement. They were clearly worried about Dipper, trailing behind Stan and Mabel, looking lost. Paying them no mind other than to smile at them in a hopefully reassuring manner, Mabel joined her Grunkle who was making the descent into the basement. Walking down the stairs and into the elevator, it wasn’t hard to see that everyone was nervous, concerned and tense. Soon enough though, the elevator hit the bottom, and they entered the lab. The first thing Mabel noticed was that it was filled with a heavy, gray smoke, and the lab smelled strongly like coffee and oil. So it came as no surprise when Ford staggered out of the haze, slightly charred, eyebrowless, and grinning. Mabel was fairly certain he was still on fire, but she wasn’t too worried about that.

“Hey everyone!” Ford greeted cheerily until his eyes fell on Dipper and his smile slid off, “What happened?”

“We found him like this, and we were hoping you knew something about this,” Stan gruffly replied, hiding his worry, while Soos brushed some fire from his brothers shoulder. He probably would have done it himself, but he was still holding Dipper close to his chest.

“Hmm, not that I seem to reca- wait! I might actually have something,” with that statement, he went to rummage into a couple of dusty, old boxes stacked into the corner. Picking up the first box, he began his search, yellowing papers, junk, and scraps fell out, all of which he ignored in favor of searching the other boxes. After looking for a bit though, he triumphantly held up a dusty, old, red spiral-bound notebook. Blowing it off, he began searching through its weathered pages.

“Before I had the journals, when I was just beginning to document the oddities of Gravity Falls, I wrote down my findings in here. However, some of them I decided to not put in the journal, either because they were insignificant or because I had moved on before copying the rest down,” Grunkle Ford explained, hastily flipping through the pages, “Aha! Fluvius Cantatis! This stream would alter the structure of whatever living being that went went through it. Usually transforming it into a mythical being or into an otherworldly creature.”

“So do you have a cure or not,” Stan interjected.

“No- no it doesn't seem like I found anything before it disappeared for good. It usually changed positions of itself every once and a while, but soon I couldn't find it.”

“Is there anything that can help us in there?” Stan asked, desperation almost masked, but it still lingered in his voice.

“Not really, the only thing I’ve seen change is animals, never a human. Which is one of the reasons why I kept it in the notebook in the first place. I’m sorry. I’ll begin to study it again though to see if I can figure something out.”

As if in response to this news, Dipper murmured quietly in his sleep, ears twitching once before he once again fell asleep. Looking at him, they all felt disheartened, and completely helpless.

“... Do you at least know what creature he is,” Mabel questioned somberly.

“Ah, yes, he has transformed into a cervitaur,” Ford replied, fiddling with the book, as if it would give him more answers if he just kept lightly bending the cover.

“...We should go bandage him up.” Wendy suggested quietly, not one to break silences, but feeling she needed to. He wasn’t going to get better if they all just stood around, after all.

Nodding slowly, Grunkle Stan lead the somber group to the elevator, everyone cramming to get in. No-one suggested they go in separate groups. They made their way upstairs, the heavyhearted group each feeling the guilt that was tossed carelessly upon their shoulders. Each one of them trying to figure out how to break the news to Dipper when he woke up. Each one of them realizing they didn’t know how.


	3. Chapter 3

Fuzzy. Everything was fuzzy, muffled. Static rang in his ears, too loud, too quiet. He couldn’t move. He could only think. He felt himself coming back from somewhere, albeit slowly. Or maybe it was fast. He couldn’t tell anymore. How long had he been traveling? Was it called traveling? And when was the last time he slept? Was he sleeping now? He remembered blurring and shifting images. Too fast, too dark. Before that, a quest. It was for someone. It was something important. Two days. He went two days with very little rest. He found something. He had found it. A gift. Someone important. They wanted it. He ran. He fell.

After that, he can’t recall. Can’t remember. Only vague shapes and darkness. Then nothing. He felt himself arriving. Arriving where? He wasn’t sure where he was going or where he had gone, only that coming back was good. It was safe. It would be better when he reached it. Reached for wherever. Relaxing, he reached out with a phantom hand, he allowed himself to be pulled out of the dark, murky, clinging fog.

Blearily, he pried open his eyes, blinking away the rest of the lingering fog. Disorientated, he tried to remember his rapidly fading dream, but found he couldn't. Ah, well, nothing different there. Fully awake now, he noticed he was on a large pillow in the living room with a quilt thrown over him. Confused, he tried to get up only to feel large amounts of pain wash over him in pounding waves. Falling back onto the pillow after his feeble attempt, he shuddered in muted agony. Once he had stopped near convulsing, he discovered that Mabel was sleeping next to him. Did they have a movie night? He couldn’t remember a movie. Then again, he couldn’t recall much right now.

Pausing, he looked over to the armchair on a whim, to find Grunkle Stan asleep as well. Maybe they did watch a movie, but why did he hurt so much? Did he drink Mabel Juice again? As if the first time wasn’t bad enough. He shuddered when he remembered the time he drank Mabel Juice and its aftermath. He decided that was one of the more likely options, if he was in such a bad state. Though he swore he’d never drink it again, so maybe it was something else she made. Hopefully it wasn’t as potent, though. Figuring there wasn’t much he could do that wouldn’t aggravate his wounds or wake up his sister, he fell back asleep.

When he awoke again, he was much more aware of his injuries, which, _ow_. And he was much more grateful to be in the living room. If there was one thing he did not want to encounter right now, it was stairs. Groaning, he peeled his head off of the surprisingly comfortable pillow, while being careful to only move his head and arms, to look around. Mabel was still there at his side, but Stan was gone. Judging from the smell in the kitchen, it wasn’t hard to guess where though. Everyone else in this house couldn’t cook. At all.

Ford was banned from even touching the stove, much less the pressure cooker. Wendy and Dipper weren’t allowed to use the blender. Ever. For the first month after the “accident,” Stan had taken to hiding it whenever they walked into the kitchen. A bit unfair, he thought, but whatever. Mabel was usually okay, unless she went near the spices. Sometimes, Dipper could still feel his tongue burning with the fury of a supernova. Okay, that was probably an exaggeration. Probably. Soos, well, Soos was fine too, unless he was alone. If he is alone, he panics and either bakes way too much, not a big deal, or he forgets to turn the stove off. Or the oven. Or that one time when he tried to “fix” the toaster. And then it became sentient. So it came as no surprise when it was Grunkle Stan who walked out of the kitchen with three plates.

Nearly dropping the carefully stacked plates upon seeing Dipper awake, he managed to casually -if a bit nervously- greet him, “Oh, hey Dipper. You’re awake now?”

“Yeah, I am. Why do I feel like I lost a boxing match with Rumble McSkirmish again?” Dipper asked, curious, but he was honestly more interested in the plates.

“Well, er, ah-” Stan’s stumbling reply interrupted by Mabel waking up.

“Do I smell…” her muffled voice stopping for a second, “Pancakes!” Mabel cried, nearly launching herself off the pillow, undoubtedly stopped only by the tangled blanket.

Grunkle Stan, glad for the distraction, handed out the plates. “Yes, but I got cheaper flour, the corporations won’t get my money today!” He declared, with all of the passion of a 60-year old cheapskate.

Mabel didn’t seem to mind as she eagerly grabbed her plate, eating with fervor. Deciding to eat, rather than asking about why he felt he got hit with the golf cart, he dove into the food. It was more of a priority right now. When he finished, he decided to address why Mabel and Stan were giving him frequent worried glances, setting his fork down, he looked over at them.

“Alright, I give. Why do you two keep looking at me like somethings wrong. And does this have anything to do with the fact that I feel like a ran a marathon with some very angry squirrels.” he demanded.

“Well…” Mabel started before looking nervous, taking a deep breath she started again, “What do you last remember.”

“I- I remember looking for something,” Dipper hesitantly began, “I found it, after that, nothing.”

“We- we found you in the woods, injured. And you had changed.”

“Changed? Changed how?”

“Errr… you had changed into a mythical creature.”

He hesitated before quietly asking, “What kind.”

Equally as nervous, she responded, “A cervitaur.”

Bewildered he questioned,“What's a cervitaur?”

In lieu of a response, she nodded to the blanket, a gesture for him to see for himself. Heart pounding, he set down his plate and did just that. Slowly lifting the blanket apprehensively, blood rushing through his ears, he saw a long, curved shape. Something light brown showed before it hit him. Oh. He- he remembered. He got the gift, a flower. He fell into the river. He contacted them. He found out. He had found out that he had changed into something else. Something that scared him. Not the shape of what he was, but that it had did it so effortlessly. Anxiety humming beneath his skin, he remembered.

But, he remembered something else, something important. His sister. She calmed him down. She was there for him. She’d have his back. They’d promised, she’d promised. They were the Mystery Twins after all. And as much as he hated to admit it, the name was growing on him. Calmer now, he gathered up his courage, and looked at himself once more. Bandages covered him, there was barely any part of him that wasn’t covered. And as for the parts that weren’t, were covered in dark purple bruises. His arms were also covered in the fabric, making him wonder how he didn’t see it before. He looked like a knock-off mummy, his scattered brain (un)helpfully informed him. Noticing that panic was overtaking him once more, he took a deep, steadying breath.

“W-well, that's not what I expected.” he said, voice small even to his own ears.

“Yyeah,” Mabel sighed out, picking at her food.

“Well, kid,” Stan started, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen on them, “at least you're not a unicorn.”

Dipper couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing, leaving the others surprised before they joined in, laughted filling the once tense air, washing away uncertainty. They all felt the tension rolling off of their shoulders, mirth bubbling up at the absolute absurdity of the situation. Tears streamed down their faces while they giggled helplessly. Dipper felt sharp, shooting pains from jostling his ribs, but couldn’t quite bring himself to stop. Things weren’t okay right now, they didn’t know what had happened exactly. They didn’t know how long it lasted. But what they did know was that they’d always be there for eachother, they all could rely on one another. So they laughed because it would end up okay. He had people that he could lean on and trust after all. It would be okay.

“What were you looking for anyway,” Mabel questioned, after they had all calmed down, “you mentioned it earlier.”

“Um, er,” he stammered, not wanting to spoil it, “ you know what? I’ll show you, do you know where my backpack is?”

Beaming, Mabel set her now-empty plate down, and took off outside. A moment later, she came back with the beat-up backpack. Lugging the backpack at Dippers head, she then settled down next to him, eyes shining. Managing to catch it before he got hit, he set it down to rummage through its contents.

“Well, it was something you mentioned, you seemed pretty excited about it too,” Dipper said mischievously.

“Is it a giant hamster ball!” Mabel exclaimed suddenly.

“What?! No, no I’m not sure how I’d fit that in here anyway,” he mused, watching Mabel mock-pout, “it’s actually…” he paused then drew his hand out, clutching the jar, “this.”

Huh. The flower was in better shape than he would have thought. Man could this jar take a beating, only a few more cracks were in it, plus the flower was still intact. It seems the only ‘damage’ was that a petal had fallen off. This was one seriously resilient flower. Not hearing a response, he nervously looked at her, hoping he didn’t grab the wrong flower. Only to find her gaze fixed intently on the gorgeous flower. Her eyes sparkling, overcome with joy. Mabel looked up, disbelief, awe, and radiating joy as she set it aside, then hug-tackled her brother. Though this aggravated his numerous injuries, he managed to hug her back.

“I only mentioned this, like, twice! How did you remember??” Mabel exclaimed excitedly, drawing back to look at it again.

Dipper grinned, “Yeah, shoving a book in my face while screaming ‘this is the perfect flower’ was definitely only ‘mentioning’ it.”

Mabel shoved her brother lightly, still smiling, “now I’ll have to do something in return,” she pronounced, ideas lighting up in her eyes.

“Nah, you don't have to do that,’ he reassured her, “but maybe we can hang out more? I mean we still have the rest of summer in front of us, besides,” he added with a smirk, “I might need some help with the new body and all. Not sure how to coordinate yet.”

Stunned, she nodded empathetically, more than happy to hang out with him, “Sure thing, bro-bro. Mystery twins?” she asked, holding her fist out.

Bumping it, he replied happily, “Mystery twins.”


	4. Chapter 4

Walking was proving to be the worst thing to relearn. It had been three days since he had first woken up, and while he did hurt as if he had been used as bait for whatever lived in the pain hole, he was impatient in getting to learn how to walk again. He was not useless. He wouldn't let this hold him back. He just couldn’t. Of course Mabel and Stan were there for him, quite literally ‘every step of the way’. In fact, he was holding on to his Grunkles arm right now, trying desperately to balance himself. His legs were quivering, lacking any kind of coordination or stable footing, determination set on his face. Shuffling forward a few steps, his foot caught on a rug and he stumbled, nearly falling over when Mabel grabbed him, pulling him back on his feet.

“Okay kid, that’s enough for today,” His Grunkle declared, picking him up effortlessly.

“No, wait,” Dipper complained, “I’ve only been trying it for…” Checking his watch, he deflated and sighed out, “two hours…”

“Awh, cheer up, bro-bro! You're getting better at this!” Mabel encouraged, then added playfully, “The first time you stood up, you were only just saved from hitting your head too hard by Wendy’s hat!”

“I suppose…” he grumpily conceded, tugging at the worn trapper hat, who’s padding had saved him from a likely concussion when he had face-planted while trying to stand up.

Wendy had given it to him before he had woken up the first day because she had to go home, and didn’t want to leave him without letting him know she was there for him. Of course she had come by the shack for her job, but the hat stayed.

“Well I know so,” She retorted, cheerful as always, “so get some rest, and you'll do even better next time!”

Smiling at his twins optimism, he relaxed back into Stan's arms, content to be carried back to the pillow while his Grunkle complained about how he wouldn’t carry Dipper around forever. Dipper didn’t take it to heart, he knew he was joking. Set back on the pillow, Dipper sighed. Despite what his sister had said, he felt as he was getting nowhere. He felt like nothing wanted to cooperate with him lately, especially seeing as almost no new information could be gained from the stream. Ford had taken to researching it again, but it was near-fruitless. The only breakthrough he did have was that once animals got into the creek, sometimes they could switch back and forth between mythical and normal.

Of course, this was a very rare occurrence, and didn’t help them in the slightest, other than the knowledge that he’d be able to shift back and forth when he had figured it out. The downside was that he didn’t know if he could control it voluntarily. Many of the turned creatures didn’t seem to have any control over it, switching at random and sometimes hurting themself in the process. Most stayed in one form or the other, unable or unwilling to turn back. Plus if he had control over it, he would’ve changed back by now, right? The only way they knew the change could be voluntary, was by observing a badger that turned into a eye-bat to get some fruit in a tree.

Grimacing at the spiraling thoughts, he turned his attention to Waddles who was currently staring at the T.V., completely enraptured. Looking at the T.V., he wasn’t surprised to see Ducktective, considering how intently Waddles was staring at it. Everyone in the family loved the show, including Grunkle Ford once he got into it. What he was surprised to see was that neither Stan nor Mabel seemed too interested in watching it. I mean, they’d seen the episodes a couple hundred times, but they always loved Ducktective.

Concerned, he looked over at them questioningly, and asked, “Hey, what's wrong? Ducktective’s on, and you're not even looking at the screen.”

Exchanging a glance, the two seemed to come to an understanding before Stan looked at him and bluntly asked, “Listen, we were wondering how you are taking this so far.”

“Hm? I- well, I suppose I've been trying not to think about it for too long,” He replied, eyes downcast and rubbing his arm, “It’s just weird you know? I don’t have much control for over half of my body, and my taste is all weird. I know I can still eat all of the things I can before, because it passes through my human stomach first, but now I feel like eating healthy things. Healthy!”

“Well, at least you're eating better,” Mabel gently added, trying to comfort him.

“Yeah, that's a bonus,” He conceded, “but it’s unsettling, like, even going to the bathroom is stressful. I have to go out into the woods, then every instinct is trying to make sure I’m safe, when I already know that I am! And frankly, having two hearts is a little disconcerting. Heck, I didn’t even know how much a deer could hear before this, or that deer have four stomach compartments! Its just- its just a lot to take in.” Rant over, he blushed and fixedly looked at the T.V., embarrassed at his outburst.

“No wonder you always looked scared or distant,” Stan said sympathetically, gazing at the T.V. in thought.

“Yeah…, sorry if I worried you guys,” He added, feeling slightly guilty he hadn’t opened up before.

Mabel opened her mouth to respond, likely to tell him that it's fine, when something hit the window with no small amount of force. It must have been a bird that crashed against the window, it’s happened before, considering there’s no shortage of birds here. But curiosity and empathy drove Mabel to check it out. Dipper would have followed, but, well. Once she was out of sight, he looked back at his Grunkle, only to find him asleep. Determined to stay awake, he stared at the door until Dipper's eyes began to grow heavy as well, and he finally gave in. He didn’t even last five minutes.

~~~~~

Making her way outside, Mabel looked underneath the window to find a small bird. Pausing a moment to check for signs of life so that she didn't pick up a dead bird -something she has done way too many times, the heartbreak is so not worth it- and was excited to see it was at least breathing steadily. Walking the last few steps to the animal, the closer she got, the less it looked like a bird. It looked like some type of albino bat, a bit strange considering it wasn’t dark out yet. But living here kinda distorts your idea of “strange”.

Picking it up gently, she nearly dropped it in surprise. This was not a normal bat. In fact, she was fairly certain it had a pompadour, freckles, and was in fact a light blue. If she was correct then this was- then this was Gideon. Fighting the urge to drop it on purpose now, she set him back down and turned back towards the door, fully intending to leave him there. An affronted squeak stopped her in her tracks, turning as she stifled a groan. This was going to be interesting.

“What do you want,” she forced out with clenched teeth, trying to be civil even though he had manipulated her and hurt her family.

Heck, she was almost certain he had his prison friends beat up someone just last week! Yeah, no, she wasn’t going to too civil, as she still had half a mind just to leave him here. He looked up at her through moist eyes, obviously in some pain, but also very, very confused. Letting out a long sigh she scooped him back up, distrustful but too caring to leave him there. She cursed her too large heart for doing this as she stepped back into the house. At least he seemed grateful. She might’ve actually dropped him if he wasn’t. Her fingers twitched with the thought, but she remained steady.

She knew what he did to help her, and she knew he was trying to get better, but that didn’t erase him from his past. Not yet. Maybe not ever, unless he pulled it together and apologized or something. At least a sign that he acknowledged what he did was wrong. Making her way to the first aid kit in the kitchen, careful to avoid the others, knowing they might not have same reservation she had. She set him down on the table, and grabbed the kit, well-stocked after Ford came back. They didn’t know if he did it, or if Stan did it. Or whether it was for the children or for Ford. At least some of the stuff was vibrant though, so she decided it was for all of them.

Setting the kit down next to him with a bit more force than needed, she glared at him and demanded, “Alright, what are you doing here?”

The small bat looked up at her despondently, and shuffled awkwardly. Realizing he couldn’t speak as a bat, she got to work on whatever injuries he had, armed with bright bandages while trying to ignore the way he looked at her hand. He seemed mesmerized, following every movement with his head dazedly, when she drew back, he snapped out of it and looked at the various band-aids. She decided to just chalk it up to Gideon simply being creepy again. Letting out a small squeak he looked back up at her, then tried to do… charades?

Ookay, at least she knew her charades. He was biting down on nothing and clutching his neck, vampire, right she knew that. Making a gesture to signal she understood, he went on to clutching his stomach and biting down, not with fangs leading, she noted.

“Okay, so you got hungry and ate something, not blood?” she guessed, watching him nod.

Next he was imitating ‘hungry’ again with more curling up, “Food wasn’t working?” she asked, again watching his head bob up and down.

Then he showed… something? He was thrashing, then getting up and tracing his wings, “You… tried to eat your arms,” she questioned, completely thrown off by the violent writhing.

Shaking his head, he tried to fly, only to crash back onto the table to trace his wings again.

“Oh! You transformed,” she inferred hopefully, and upon seeing the nod, she looked at the new movements.

Now he was… well, she wasn’t sure exactly, but it wasn’t anything familiar. He began by motioning at himself, then at Mabel, then he crossed his wings, and then he repeated. “You can’t be with me,” she asked hopefully, only to frown when he shook his head defiantly.

“Alright,” she began, deep in thought, ‘well, I already know you’re not human, and you’re not just gesturing at me, right? Hmmm. You can’t transform back?”

Nodding vigorously, he chirped happily, relieved that someone understood. Drumming her fingers against the table while staring at Gideon, she finally sighed and offered her arm to him. Not knowing what had happened, only knowing that he was hungry. He looked at it greedily, just about to bite her before he backed off, something flashing in his eyes. Was it concern? Really? He quickly mimed the last thing he did, but in reverse.

“Ah, you don’t want to turn me into a vampire, right?” Mabel inquired, pulling her arm back to his disappointment and relief.

Seeing him nod, she sighed and studied the small creature before her. He had mimed hunger, but didn’t seem to be troubled by it right now. Did he transform into a bat instinctively because he was hungry? She knew Dipper was having a hard time with instincts too, every loud noise made him freeze up, among other things. Not finding any answers by simply looking at him, she picked him up and headed downstairs. She was going to get answers from the one person who probably had them. It seemed like the type of thing Ford would be interested in afterall.

Entering the basement, she was pleased to see less smoke in the air, though the smell of coffee was stronger than ever. Stepping into the dark basement, she looked around for her Grunkle, hoping to find him before the bat situation got worse. Finally spotting him, or rather his legs, underneath a machine, she heard him grumbling to himself about parts. Seeing her chance, she snuck up to him, and grabbed his leg while shouting his name. CLANG. She didn’t think this through.

“Mabel! What are you doing down here?” he asked, bewildered but luckily not mad, as he held a hand to his head.

“Well, I just wanted to know some things about vampires,” she said, obviously pandering, while smiling sweetly.

“Mabel.”

“Ye-es?”

“Does this have to do with your vampire obsession, or with the bat in your hands.”

Looking down at her hands, having forgotten he was there, she answered guiltily, “It has to do with the bat in my hands…”

Sighing, but knowing he had to ask, he questioned, “Do you know who it is?”

“About that… meet Gideon.” she said, faking confidence as she held up the bat.

To his credit, he didn’t immediately bring out his gun, or any weapon really, instead choosing to grimace and stare more closely at the small bat. Maybe if she had put a sticker on him, he would seem less evil. Or maybe glitter.

“Alright, why did you bring him here. You told me about him.” Ford stated, looking at the bat that had tried to bring harm to countless people. Mabel didn’t think she had enough stickers to make Gideon seem friendly at that moment.

“He told me he got hungry and transformed, he doesn’t know how to change back.”

“Why hasn't he eaten?”

“He doesn't want to transform anyone, could you please help him.”

Both lighting up at something he knew about, and looking irritated it was about someone he didn’t like, he walked over to his copies of the journal and began to speak, “Fortunately, I know how this happened, as I studied vampires for a while, considering they could give me more answers than other creatures. The reason he transformed was because it is easier to get at a wider range of prey as a bat, plus it also uses less blood to maintain.” He explained, rolling up his sleeve, then holding his arm out for Gideon to bite, which the bat did reluctantly, having to trust that Ford knew more about his biology.

“Vampires have two glands and a small organ that connects to their teeth, which are slightly hollow. The teeth have small, pin-sized tubes inside them, which keeps the teeth from being brittle, or too large. The size allows the teeth to go into flesh easier, and the tubes can release the substances from the glands, or take in blood. The first gland is full of modified blood which causes the transformation of a human into a vampire. The reason it’s safe for him to take my blood right now, is because in times of emergency -before the vampire is turned into a bat- that blood can be reabsorbed into the body, giving it more energy to hunt.”

He decided to continue, knowing Mabel was interested and that this information could be useful to Gideon in the future. “The secondary gland holds anticoagulant -a substance that thins blood to prevent clotting-, a numbing agent, and a light sedative. Additionally, both of these glands need training to use, which makes it safe to be bitten by a recently turned vampire regardless. Lastly, they also develop a small organ they use instinctively, it contracts and releases to pump blood, which then leads into their stomach.”

Done feeding, Gideon released his arm, leaning back to study Ford with interest.

Rolling up his sleeve, he added to Gideon, “Now that you’re full, you can transform back by allowing your body to shift.”

Getting up, Gideon slid down Mabel’s leg, dropping onto the floor. At this point, he tried to concentrate into turning back. Or at least that’s what Mabel assumed he was doing, not much was happening. It just looked like he was trembling, or he ate something sour. When several minutes passed, he gave up to look at Ford flatly. Sighing, Ford gently lifted up his foot, only to hit it down loudly next to Gideon. Giving a shocked squeak, he transformed out of fear, rushing under a nearby table.

“Gideon,” the older man sighed out, unimpressed.

“Yes?” the new vampire answered haltingly, still under the table.

“Come back tomorrow for training, and get out my workshop.”

Mabel didn’t think she’d ever seen Gideon move so fast.


	5. Chapter 5

Paff! The sound of a broom smacking something -or someone- was unmistakable, considering he had heard it fairly often. Curious to see what it was this time though, Dipper very wobbly stood up and made his way to where he had heard it from. He’d gotten much better, both at walking, and his general heath. Two more days had passed since Mabel brought Gideon in, which they only found out by Gideon bursting out of the downstairs and booking it. So he was able to actually walk around now. That didn’t stop him from falling or tripping though. Or looking like a knock-off mummy. Getting to the source of the sound, he wasn’t shocked to see Gideon and Grunkle Stan facing off in the gift shop, Stan bearing a broom. Paff!

Gideon had made a lunge towards Stan, but was ultimately knocked aside by the flimsy broom that his Grunkle wielded formidably. Deciding to get involved now, rather than later when they both complained about it, he stepped into the shop. Gideon had taken up temporary residence in the shack, since he had to know more about his new vampire-ness. Well, not exactly “residence,” but he was around more than enough. He was tolerated mostly, but occasionally Stan -or someone else, but mostly him- would get fed up, resulting in minor scuffles. Upon entering, they both looked at him, surprised at the interruption, before Stan took this to his advantage, taking a swing at Gideon. Paff!

Gideon hissed, snapping his head back towards Stan before Dipper interrupted, “Alright, alright, knock it off before you break something.” And no, he did not look superstitiously at his Grunkles back.

Nope, not even if had cracked loudly during their last fight. Not even if he had to fetch the orthopedic pillow, which his Grunkle had then laid on for hours. He was definitely referring to the broken snow globes and mirrors. Even if the mirror had been cracked when Gideon sauntered into it accidentally, not during a fight. He was not referring to Stans back at all. Fortunately, this did break up the fight, with both of them walking different directions, even if they did glare at each other a bit. Dipper shuffled towards Stan, ignoring the way his ~~feet~~ hooves slid out from under him.

“What were you fighting about this time?” He questioned, hoping to help resolve the issue, lest they tear the shack down.

“Eh, it just kinda happened,” Stan replied, shrugging while slowing his steps to keep in pace with his great-nephew.

Deciding to take this answer rather than to push it, he shrugged. It was probably the truth anyway, considering they did not get along at all. Walking along with his Grunkle in a comfortable silence, they soon ended up in the living room, where they watched claymation movies together. Mabel was off playing with Grenda and Candy, so they were able to laugh at the clay figures without her getting scared. All too soon, it was dinnertime and Mabel had returned, though Dipper remained on the pillow while activity reigned in the kitchen.

Gideon was tense in his seat, clearly trying to be the farthest away from Ford. He was no longer afraid from the turning-back thing, but Ford had made it clear to stay away from his great-niece. Very clear. Mabel sat near her Grunkles, clearly pleased she wasn’t next to Gideon. Soos and Wendy flanked Gideon, although not happily. Ah well, they were the ones who had wanted to stick around for dinner. Currently they were all arguing about Ducktective, very invested in the latest episode, while Dipper lounged peacefully on the pillow. Occasionally he added a comment to stir up discussion again, and inevitably more arguing. Soon though, conversation turned away from the exciting tales of Ducktective, into what Ford and Stan had done while sailing. It involved a lot of punching various sea-creatures, apparently. Accompanied by lost treasure and new discoveries. Which turned to Stan bragging about his latest scam. Just before summer began, Soos gave Stan the title “Mr. Mystery” again, claiming it a break from the stressful work. Dipper thinks he did it for nostalgia, not that he was judging.

“Haha, yeah,” Stan boasted boisterously, gesturing slightly, “the people of this town are so gullible. I invented a new holiday for the residents here, and yes it got tourists too. I even named the holiday ‘Staniday,’ honestly, I’m getting a little worried about them now. This false holiday sold two items. For the townsfolk, I bottled up some water from a stream, claiming that if drunk at midnight tonight, it would grant them one wish. I told them it only worked for the townsfolk, because this land gives off magic that builds up in people. For the tourists, I made a dreamcatcher that I told them had the water on it, for when it’s 11/11/11, or any special day. They can use it to ensure their wish came true. I said it worked because dreamcatchers hold magic in them, which would ‘activate’ the water. I didn’t even put water on them, because it would waste it.”

“Grunkle Stan, is this why you had Mabel get water from a stream?” Dipper couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes, but I did filter it. I’m not heartless.”

“Grunkle Stan! I was wearing an electric sweater at the time! Do you know how difficult to not get water on it or me?” Mabel demanded, hands on table, lifting herself up in annoyance.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry sweetie.”

She sat down, satisfied with the apology. “But wait, why didn’t you use water from the shack?” Dipper inquired, assuming it was about the water bill.

“Don’t you kids remember anything?” he asked, feigning exasperation, “The plumbings down this week, some kind of burst in the pipes.”

“Oh, right,” Dipper replied, eloquently as always.

Mabel’s eyes lit up with a new idea, making everyone in the vicinity nervous, “We should hop on the ‘holiday’ and drink the water,” she announced gleefully.

“Mabel, sweetie, it’s from a stream.” Stan reminded her, baffled by the suggestion.

“You said you filtered it~,” she sang, obviously serious about this.

“Ya, man, it’ll be fun,” Wendy added mischievously, drawn in by the idea of a dare and Stan trying one of his own products.

Wendy nudged Soos, who jumped on the idea, elated, “Yeah, dudes, let's do this! Do you have more bottles?”

Stan sighed, but gave in, “Yeah, there were some more that didn’t get sold. You can use those since it’ll be some time before I can sell them again, anyways.”

Mabel hopped out of her chair, dashing towards the gift shop. She came back victoriously a few seconds later, proudly brandishing a large bag full of water bottles. Wendy grinned, grabbing a few and tossing them to everyone. Dipper and Gideon both set theirs to the side, not wanting to participate, or in Gideon’s case, unable to. Stan and Ford looked at theirs with mixed expressions, but it was mostly disgust.

Wendy grinned evilly, twisting the cap off, “Thes first one who finishes it, gets five bucks from me.”

She’d successfully got Stan on board, he grabbed the bottle eagerly, drawn by the promise of money. Taking it as a challenge, everyone opened their bottles, save Dipper and Gideon. Ford seemed confused but willing to go along with it.

“Ready,” Wendy began, “Set… GO!”

Dipper chanted “chug” as everyone lifted the bottles to their lips and did just that. Gideon watched on in horror and awe as the water went down faster than he’d ever seen, competitive personalities winning over common sense. It was over quickly as Stan, Wendy, and Mabel all slammed down empty bottles at the same time.

“I win!” They declared simultaneously, paused, then glared at each other.

“And it’s a tie,” Dipper decided, forestalling any developing argument.

But something changed. Something was different. The room was strange somehow, shifting, but not quite. Dipper was the first to notice. Wendy’s skin seemed fuzzier, Stan looked greyer than normal, Mabel looking far too pink. Ford’s ears were shifting upwards, turning pointed with hair (fur!?!?) growing on it.. Dipper was also the first to react.

“What’s happening!” he panicked, voice too high, too scared.

That's when they noticed, faces morphing into expressions of fear, horror, confusion, and most terrifying of all, the deep, rooting feeling of vulnerability. Scattering, the inhabitants of the shack made a run for exits, trying desperately to get out, to go anywhere. To escape. They couldn’t find any, Gideon blocked one of the two paths out, scared and confused, but trying to help. Dipper joined him -guarding the second door- when he realized what was happening. It still hasn't processed, but this was the least he could do. The least he could do to keep them safe.

They were still transforming, luckily painlessly it seemed, slower than expected though. It then occurred to Dipper that there was going to be a problem. A big one. Sharply looking at Mabel, scales breaking through her skin, she was going slower, breathing heavily. No. Oh no. He saw red. He couldn’t allow this to happen. He wouldn't allow this to happen. Raising his hind hooves, trance-like, he slammed them back down, grabbing attention at the loud sound, at the violent movement. They were still afraid, he knew that, but he couldn’t let Mabel get hurt. He promised. Stalking past them, hooves coordinated and balanced now, he approached Mabel.

She was shaking, trembling really, he looked at the now silent room, and asked in a tone that begged no questions, “Where is the nearest water source.”

This seemed to bring them out of their panicked haze, wrestling their instincts, grabbing onto the human part of them, and not letting go.

“Since the plumbings out, and Fluvius Cantatis is unpredictable in where it is, the pool is the closest,” Ford managed to slur through rapidly growing teeth, pointy and large.

Dipper nodded once, hauled his sister onto his back, and headed towards the entrance, when he paused to turn back, “The townsfolk. They have no idea what's going to happen. Or what's happening if it’s too late. I’ll trust you to warn them, and if it is too late, to help them.” His tone softened. “You can freak out later, but right now we have to make sure everyone is safe.”

They nodded, determination settling in their eyes, even if under it their emotions swirled faster than an angry pterodactyl. Done making sure the rest of them were fine, he started back towards the door, when a wheeze broke through his sisters chest. Any illusion of his self-control broke as he galloped off onto the path, hooves digging deep into the hardened dirt. There was no way he could operate the golf cart in his condition. Painfully, he stretched his legs farther and farther, the trees turning into an indistinct brown blurr. His eyes were watering from the burning sensation that ran up his legs, simply gritting his teeth he ploughed on. He had to get there. He had to get there. He had to. He held his hands behind his back, struggling to keep Mabel safely balanced as he pushed himself harder.

Mabel’s wheezing was picking up, not able to take in air as her body tried weakly to flop in response. The town, and more importantly the pool, was in sight now, but Mabel was choking and gasping, moving violently against an unseen enemy. Legs numbing, hearts hammering painfully against his chests, he pushed himself farther still, entering the quiet town. She was not going to die. Not on his watch. Not anytime soon. Screams broke through the recently peaceful town, rippling and ebbing, the shrieking fear reverberating through alleys and streets, bouncing off the ground and landing painfully in Dippers ears. His only fleeting thought echoed with “Oh, it must be twelve.” He wasn’t sure if he said it aloud or not, nor did he care, as he angled himself to the imposing fence of the pool, hooves clacking harshly against the unforgiving asphalt.

He had to go faster, he had to. He would. He couldn’t lose her. She was his sister. His family. Her breathing was fainter, her movements sluggish. Finding a new burst of strength, Dipper closed in on the fence, he had to make this. He had to do it. Her breathing stopped as he lept. He pushed his body off the pavement, faintly hearing something crack, hoping to at least throw her into the pool. He didn’t need to worry about not making it though. He cleared the gate, hanging for a moment in the chaotic, yet peaceful air, before crashing down heavily into the water, severing his connection to air.

Thrashing wildly for a moment in the consuming water, he was brought to a sudden stop at the blinding realization that he couldn’t get back up. He simply did not have the energy left, he’d brought his body to the brink of exhaustion, then shoved it over. Dipper’s body was brought to a soft halt, he had hit the bottom. His eyes widened at this, he was scared. He didn’t want to die like this. Was this how Mabel felt? His reopened wounds stung dully in the chlorinated water, his numbed muscles were beginning to ache, and his lungs burned, spreading a dull fire throughout his body. Dipper’s eyes blurred uncertainty, waning vision showing only the stark blue of the pool. He stared into the void, at the abyss of color, no longer thinking much of anything. Hey, he thought, the sound hollow in his skull, at least Mabel was safe, even if he couldn’t see her again. His eyes slid shut, no longer able to keep them open. He missed the flash of pink and a garbled scream.


	6. Chapter 6

Everything was happening in slow motion as Dipper’s body hit the pool floor, sliding slightly on the smooth tile. She couldn’t move as she watched his body become limp, no longer holding on to the will to survive. It looked almost ethereal, the way his loosened bandages flowed and twisted around him like snakes, the way the lighting made him seem paler than humanly possible, bruises being the only color on his skin. It was almost like an abstract painting or an all too vivid nightmare. She was placing her bet on the nightmare, though. Or at least something she knew she’d be having nightmares about. She felt as if her life was coming apart at the seams, and **_she couldn’t do anything_**. She could hardly even breathe. She was choking on water, not yet able to take in air from it as her gills loosened, having clumped together from being out of water for so long. She could only move when his eyes closed, releasing bubbles from his lungs that swirled and danced.

She couldn’t let that become permanent. Not that blank expression. She may have screamed at that thought, more bubbles emptying into the water. Everything began to speed up again as Mabel lunged towards him, determined and scared. Kicking her lower half in a poor imitation of Mermando, she was able to get close to him quickly, pulling him out of the cold, pressing water. Breaking the surface, she tugged him towards the edge, his unmoving body dragging through the water.

Pushing him on to the tile, she realised she had no idea what to do. He has two chests and hearts! Maybe she could just… jumping onto the edge, she held him upside down the best she could, and began small compressions on the deer chest. Water dripped in small rivulets from his mouth, but he still wasn’t moving. Getting most(?) of the water from the secondary lungs down to the first lungs, she went back into the water to breathe. Having laid him back down, she began compressions on the human lungs. She counted the compressions, trying to use what she’d learned.

1… please be okay, 2… c’mon, breathe! 3… please… 4… am I not doing it right? 5… no, we learned this a while ago in school, 6… is water in his deer lungs? 7… 8… 9… no, it can’t be, it has to be in his human lungs, I don’t know what to do if it’s still in his deer lungs. 10… please breathe, 11… please, 12… please breathe… 13… why isn’t he reacting? 14… I can’t break my promise, and neither can you, 15… you have to wake up now, you have to. 16… what am I going to say to Stan? What about our parents? You have to wake up. 17… I can’t lose you, you’re my brother! 18… is it too late? No… I have to get to thirty before the breaths. 19… will he make it to thirty? 20… he has to. 21, I’m sorry Dipper, I’m so sorry. 22, 23, 24 I’m not sure if I can keep my promise, I’m sorry. Please wake up.

25… you have to bre- Dipper spat out water suddenly, coughing out small streams of water, and took in a shuddering breath. Ohthankgoodness. Relief washed over her so suddenly she felt faint, a bright contrast to the dark fear that had nearly consumed her. More collected now, she was able to hear the screams still rising from the small town. It hadn’t calmed down much, fear still gripped the inhabitants, concealing them into a shroud of panic. Suddenly, a loud sound resonated out clearly, descending upon the town.

“Ugh,” Dipper said roughly, still coughing every so often, “the emergency meeting bell? What’s happening?” He paused for a moment, recollecting everything, then continued, “Oh. Right. I think I swallowed half of the pool, which, ew.”

Remembering spitting out a band-aid the summer prior, she sympathized with him, “Yeah, it’s not the best water, but hey it doesn’t turn people into creatures,” she said optimistically as she gestured to the town, quieter now that the bell had gone off.

Either they had gone to the meeting or had begun trying to escape. Maybe it was a mix of both. Hopefully, though, everyone was at least semi-contained. It wouldn’t shock Mabel though if most of them had given into the flight or fight instinct. It was the easiest to fall into.

“I guess it’s got that going for it, at least,” he conceded, then grimaced as he peeled a band-aid off his tongue, “Okay, nevermind. I’ll take becoming a monster over this anyday. Who even is swimming with these cheap band-aids!?”

Not bothering to bite back her smile, Mabel lowered herself sightly into the water. Adrenaline running off of her, uncaring of the possibly band-aid-filled water. Hey, it didn’t bother her last summer, and it didn’t bother her now. Perhaps a little unsanitary, but eh, whatever. A small, comfortable silence fell over them, when Mabel felt it. A large thudding that resounded throughout her body every few moments. Gasping, she curled up the best she could, trying to stifle the thumping that made her want to puke and scrambled her thoughts.

“Mabel? Mabel are you okay!?” Dipper asked, worried.

She couldn’t respond, the thudding taking a large presence inside her, choking her. She barely took notice of Dipper trying his hardest to shuffle towards her, still exhausted, but trying to see what had happened. He was saying something, but she couldn’t hear him over the loud beat. It was louder and more overwhelming than a drum. Shivering, she allowed herself to sink to the bottom of the pool, curling up tighter, hoping that it would stop, or at least become more bearable. Moments stretched out and passed, time becoming difficult to keep track of. She soon no longer knew if she’d been down there for a few seconds or hours. Everytime it came back, she was almost certain she would pass out, but she held on grimly. The thudding was so suffocating and painful, it was almost unbearable. She wanted to cry. Gradually, the thudding that resonated through her became more and more bearable as time wore on, and soon she was able to uncurl, though she couldn’t help but flinch whenever it happened.

Thoughts clearer now, she swan slowly and uncoordinated back up to the surface. Breaking the surface once again, a lone scream pierced her ear. Oh, yeah, she’d forgotten about that. Looking over at Dipper, she was surprised to see him still awake. She didn’t know how long she’d been under, but it had been at least ten minutes, and before she’d gone under, he was on the verge of passing out. Looking him over, she realized that he’d rewrapped his bandages, which probably kept him awake. He also looked bone tired, swaying slightly, almost as if a breeze would knock him over. Scratch that, a breeze would definitely knock him down, she thought as he leaned precariously over the water then snapped back awake. Swimming over to him, his head turned towards her in alarm, then concern once he realized who it was.

“Mabel! Are you okay? What happened?” Dipper questioned, alert now and asking questions almost too fast for answers, “Did it have to do something with the whole mermaid thing?”

Smiling, she gave another wince at a beat but answered anyways, “Yes, I’m fine, I’m not sure if it has anything to do with the transformation, but it feels like I’m listening to very loud fireworks. You know, the ones that vibrate in your chest, but worse. Almost like the time that an illegal firecracker landed at our feet and Grunkle Stan was only just able to get us out of the explosion range.”

Wincing at the memory, Dipper looked at Mabel, obviously trying to figure out what was happening to her. A few moments of silence passed, and Mabel was almost certain he fell asleep during some of them.

Suddenly, his eyes widened and he clicked his fingers, “Got it! I think I remember you telling me merpeople have around seventeen hearts, right? You just aren’t used to it, so your mind is trying to adjust with your body.”

“Oh,” Mabel said quietly, that would explain it, and felt for her pulse.

Sure enough, the “thud” was slightly more bearable now and happened at regular intervals. But it took some time before it happened again, which worried her.

“It's going slower than normal,” She added uneasily, finger pressed against her wrist.

“That’s probably normal, but we can ask Ford. Or a doctor.”

“What if the doctors experiment on me!” Mabel exclaimed, nerves and her love of horror movies getting to her.

“Mabel, a lot of people are going to be transformed, maybe even the doctors. Plus, its Gravity Falls, it’s probably going to be considered a ‘normal’ occurrence”

“Oh, right.”

Dipper’s eyes were closing again, uncaring of his valiant struggle to keep them open. Reaching down to the water, he splashed himself with the cold water. Shaking the water off, he stubbornly kept his eyes open.

“You can sleep, you know,” She mumbled, not really wanting him to, but knowing it was probably better for him to get some sleep.

“Mhm,” he murmured, obviously not impressed by her shaky voice.

Pouting, she sunk into the water, bubbles floating up from her nose as she tried to stare him down, eyes hovering just over the water. Smirking, he leaned over and splashed her with water. Spluttering, she grinned and splashed him back with her tail.

“No fair,” He complained, smiling, then scooped up more water and dumped it on her head.

Soon, a water fight had broke out, and Dipper was thoroughly drenched again. Dipper was squeezing the water out of Wendy’s hat as Mabel swum lazily around, the water not as cold for her. Swimming back to him, she dumped a handful of water on his deer back. Breaking out into helpless giggling, they soon calmed down, fatigue catching up to both of them. Staring out into the open sky, where stars glimmered hopefully and the waxing moon smiled down at her, peace filled her. Shortly after, the town fell silent, claiming its occupants back to sleep. Well, hopefully. Yawning, Mabel subconsciously grabbed her brothers hand, and fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Wendy wasn’t sure what to think when Dipper dashed out the door, Mabel thrown precariously across his back, feeble and having a hard time breathing. She was pretty sure she had short-circuited though, considering she was watching the Grunkles beginning to grow tails (as well as suspicious lumps on their backs), and Soos had started **_melting_**. Also, she was almost certain something was growing from the base of her spine, but she really, _really_ didn’t want to check. If she checked, she would probably just freak out about it, which was just about last thing she wanted right now. It was right behind Ford getting his hands on the stove again. But panicking was quickly growing on the scale of things she didn't want to happen. Especially since everyone else was just barely managing to keep it together. Well, with the exception of Gideon. He just looked vaguely sympathetic, but more terrified than anything. She was fairly sure if there was anymore stress in the room, Soos would become a puddle and then they’d all lose it.

Standing up straighter, -well, as straight as possible with the rearranging bones and all- she called out softly, but commanding, “Alright, you heard Dipper, we need to get the townssfolk ssafe.”

She spoke with a slur, narrowly avoiding biting her tongue that suddenly seemed far too large, with teeth too sharp.

“Sshe’ss right,” Ford agreed readily, making his way to the door unsteadily, “we’ve got to-” he cut off quickly with a yelp, looking for all in the world as if he had just tryed to jump out of his skin.

Slapping his hand over his mouth, she was just able to hear the quiet, slurred surprise of, “I bit my tongue.”

Biting -ha, bite- back a laugh, she headed towards the door, barely managing to balance herself, “C’mon guyss, we better get going.”

Grabbing the door knob, she noticed two things, one, her hand was covered in soft red-orange fur and had sharp arcing claws. It had remained relatively unchanged, but now it had pads and her fingers were slightly shorter. But more importantly was that, two, she couldn’t open doors anymore. The handle slid uselessly in her grasp, unable to turn it even slightly. Sighing, she turned back to the others and held up her hands (paws?). A slight pause hung heavily in the air before Gideon slinked forward to turn the handle easily. Awkwardly, she adjusted the blue cap that sat comfortably on her head, a nervous tic she had developed after a while. Opening the door the rest of the way, she made her way outside, wobbling every step of the way. She closely followed by everyone else, who also seemed to have troubles walking.

Outside, they all looked in unison at the golf cart, “Okay I vote that no-one iss driving that,” Wendy spoke up, albeit carefully, wary of biting her tongue like Ford had.

Wendy was not enthralled with the thought of entering that death-trap when it was difficult to drive on a good day.

“Agreed,” Stan slurred, surprising everyone, he was the one who drove practically blind after all.

But before anyone could comment on this oddity, a loud, drawn out sound caught their attention. Shrrriiiip. Looking back, Wendy saw both of the Grunkles shirts hanging uselessly around them. They had been torn off by their growing wings, revealing a light grey slate and golden fur. One of Stans small cement bat wings accidentally winded up hitting Ford, whose own tan-blue wings flared up in defence. Unfortunately, this unbalanced him, and he fell roughly onto the ground. Wendy tried to facepalm -keyword being tried- but she just ended up accidentally hitting herself in the nose. Whimpering, she threw her hands over her muzzle, embarrassed and hurt. Soos was doing his best puddle impression, almost completely distracted by what was happening.

“Okay, okay, Ssooss pleasse get back into the housse and try to keep yoursself together. We don’t have time to throw on new sshirtss, they’d probably rip anywayss. Right now, we have to go,” instructed Ford, trying to reorganize them, though Wendy noticed he was speaking carefully, -trying to avoid biting his tongue again, most likely- but not quite managing to conceal his hissing slur.

Soos entered the house, not able to object. She was fairly certain his vocal cords had completely dissolved, else he would have insisted on helping. Taking carefully measured steps forward, the odd group was on their way again. Gideon was the only one walking normally, while Wendy and Ford were speed-shuffling, and Stan was either lifting his feet too high or dragging them through the road. Worst. Rescue. Party. Ever. The silent group trudged resolutely through the woods, no matter how ungainly, until something stopped her in her tracks. The sound of a bell tolling broke through the woods, startling her as it rang loud and clear. Wait. Hang on. She shouldn’t be able to hear it from here, especially not “loud and clear”. Her ears flicked forward, -oh, right, that’s why- only to pick up a faint scream. Well, crap. Looking at the others, she noticed that only Ford had reacted, which made sense, they were probably the only ones with enhanced hearing.

“Guys, the bell went off, its twelve now and I think I heard someone scream,” Wendy said nervously, already beginning to shuffle faster.

Looking at her, they nodded and began attempting to run. In trying to pick up the pace, she fell flat onto the ground, the air going out of her lungs in an explosive “whoosh”. Groaning, she picked herself up, hands and feet resting on the dirt path. But before she could get up fully, another scream broke through the woods and she bolted towards it on all fours. Oh. This could work. Maybe. Dipper had described something like this before, what he had felt when he was panicking. The only difference being that she felt as if she was hunting them down, instead of it being the other way around. Plus she was still level-headed. Picking up the pace into a running stride, the forest smells faded into the background, something she hadn’t even realized was bothering her.

The sight of the town was clear and still, no-one was outside yet, though screams broke through it frequently. Approaching the town, the buildings seemed to loom over her, appearing intimidating and tall. Glancing briefly backwards, she snapped her head back once she realized that she had no time to worry about the others. The screaming was increasing at an alarming rate, but even more worrying was that some distinct screams had fallen silent. She had to get as much of this under control as she could. She just had to hope that the others would follow suit. Skirting the town, she headed towards the funeral house. She needed to get some of the town contained, so the most likely place to do it would be there.

Seeing as it was on the outskirts next to the woods, it would be the most likely place to run to. Besides if Robbie had been transformed, he would probably need help. She was still his friend, even if they had some rough patches. Leaping onto the asphalt -trying to go faster by going on more level ground- she hopped off it quickly, pads almost torn from the rough surface. Loping steadily parallel to the road now, she closed in on the dark house. Hearing a high pitched scream, she went faster, recognizing it as Robbie.

Taking a flying jump onto the porch, she hesitated for a moment, did she knock? Would they answer? Could she break in? She couldn’t just open the door for obvious reason, so she lightly tapped at the door. The door burst open immediately, and she was dragged rather forcibly into the house. Tripping and falling, she looked up to be greeted by the sight of a pacing, slightly blue Robbie.

“Wendy! Something's wrong! I don’t know, I was just drinking some water and-” Robbie paused his tirade to look at her with surprise, “Did I just kidnap a dog? Is it wearing clothes? Oh no… I really am losing it.”

Rolling her eyes, she carefully stood up from her fallen position on the floor to interrupt him, “ The word you’re looking for is dognap, and you’re not going crazy, it’s me.”

Robbie stopped pacing to slowly look over at her again. Upon seeing her annoyed expression, his hand dropped. Not “dropped” as in he let it fall to his side, “dropped” as in it literally fell to the ground. It gave out a small “thud” when it hit the floor. However, he didn’t seem to notice it, he was still busy staring at Wendy. A moment passed by until something seemed to register with him, blinking slowly, his face morphed into one of horror. Naturally, he screamed. Well, she supposes it would be a shock to see someone you’ve known for years turned into a wolf. Absentmindedly she picked up the hand, then she slapped her hand over his mouth.

“Stop screaming.” She interrupted once again, curt but not unkind, still tense from hearing the people she grew up around shrieking in fear, “You dropped this.”

Handing him back his hand, he looked at it momentarily before cautiously reattaching it. He opened his mouth, about to say something stupid or scream probably, when his parents drifted in. No, seriously, they hovered inches above the floor and came in through a closed door. She could see the wallpaper behind them.

“Sooo, you’re a zombie and your parents are poltergeists?”

“Oh, no, dear… we’re ghosts. Poltergeists don’t have a visible form,” his mom explained cheerily, floating in the air peacefully.

“Right. Of course.” Wendy said, at a loss.

“Would you like spaghetti? We’ve got plenty,” his father added, not bothered by the whole undead theme they seemed to have going in their house.

You’d think they’d be more bothered by it, considering they lived in a house of dead things that could potentially come back.

“Er, no, I’m good, I have stuff to do,” Wendy back-tracked, not that she didn’t want it, because their spaghetti was amazing.

But because she heard someone coming towards them. Very quickly.

“Another time then?” Robbie's dad asked, polite as always.

“Yeah, sure.”

Seeing that they had calmed down -for now-, she stepped out to see a terrified two-headed dog scampering towards the woods. Tattered clothes were draped over it loosely, just about to fall apart. The clothes seemed to be blended from two different shirts, clashing in the middle. The actual creature was a split between a whippet and a pitbull, along with human characteristics that would presumably allow it to stand up. Going down on all fours once again, she shot off towards it, attempting to cut off its path. Not before she heard Robbie grumble something about “holding hands”, which was probably hilarious. Hey, he was dating someone else now, so she knew it was a joke. Adrenaline sung in her veins as she dug up the soft grass beneath her. Narrowing her vision, she ran towards it, focused solely on catching it. The creature was quick, but she was too, and she was closing in fast. Narrowly dodging a tree, she lept closer to it, feeling phantom heat rising off it.

A brief flash of a vision sinking her sinking her teeth into it sent her sprawling head over heels in the springy grass. No! Bad predator brain! She was not there to “hunt,” this was someone from the town! Picking herself back up, she caught sight of double tails disappearing through a bush. Growling at herself, she picked the pace back up, determined to bring them back, **_safely_**. Crashing through the bush, she saw them once again and dashed towards them, cutting the gap down once more. Thinking quickly, she ran next to the pitbull side, then snapped her jaws, causing it to involuntarily lean into the weaker whippet side. Watching it crash down, she slid to a halt, turning back to stalk towards the fallen townsperson. The poor creature struggled up again, trying to make an escape.

Bunching the muscles in her hind legs, she sprang neatly off the ground, crashing into them and pinning them down. A sharp yelp came from them as they were forced into the forest floor, but knowing she didn’t hurt them badly, she growled into their ears. Instantly, they went limp, somehow recognizing it as a warning, not a threat. Standing back, she realized that she would now have to try to calm them down. Ugh. Sitting back on her haunches, she held her hands up peacefully, watching them get closer to investigate. Letting them sniff her hands was a little gross, but it seemed to calm them down, so she allowed it.

“Hey, uh, who are you,” Wendy ventured, hoping to either calm them down more, or get an answer. Hopefully both, though.

For a few moments, the wild reigned in their eyes, blocking out rational thought. Slowly though, something intelligent entered their eyes, far more so than a dog.

Soon they tried to talk, but all she got was half-words and drool until they got the hang of it and they replied, “Deputy Durland”, and, “Ssheriff Blubss” simultaneously.

“Wait, the both of you?”

The two dog heads looked at each other in surprise, having not processed the fact they were now fused together, the pitbull head -Sheriff Blubs- spoke slowly “I suppose so…”

They looked back down at their conjoined body again, at a loss. Groaning, she took a step closer to them, ready to help out when she heard something approaching. Turning, she swiftly burst back out of the bush to see… a mob. A mob of mythical, scared people. Oh. She backed up hastily, not ready to take on an entire mob. Bumping into a tree stopped her backwards motion, so she shrunk into the tree, covering her face. Her forearms were held shakily above her, not nearly enough to stop them, but enough to be a small comfort to her. Their shadows covered her, blotting out the moonlight as she let out an involuntary wimper. The smell of raw fear was suffocating as they descended upon her.


	8. Chapter 8

Wendy was, once again, saved by the bell, although it was a bit more literal this time. The meeting bell had rung out suddenly, halting the oncoming rush of creatures, who had a wild look about them. Sagging slightly in relief, but not letting her guard down, she stood up slowly. Stepping forward gently, she lifted up her hands peacefully so as not to scare them. She did not want them to begin running again, they were terrified enough as is. They were agitated and scared, pacing or just trembling in place. Gradually, their attention shifted to her, though not coherent, they saw someone who could help. Or maybe in charge.

“Er, you heard the bell, um, it’s time for a meeting!” She managed to say, pointing in the direction of the town, still in shock, wondering if they would respond.

A still moment hung in the air, tension almost unbearable as the creatures stared her down. Then, hesitantly, one creature turned away, heading back to town. The face-off was broken as more creatures followed them, creating a steady stream of mythical creatures. She wasn’t quite sure if they had understood her, or just went in the direction she pointed at. Either way, she was grateful. Slumping against the smooth bark, she walked dazedly over to the conjoined police. They were curled up, fur raised along their spine, with terror written clearly on their faces.

Trotting up to them, Wendy sat down, far enough away to be non-threatening, but close enough to calm them down. Again. This time it was much quicker, as they had only been frightened at the mob, not at themselves. After they were calmer, she lead them back to the town, heading towards the meeting place. She held a steady lope, with the two at her side, who didn’t seem to be managing it as well. Ah, well, she knew she probably wouldn’t have this much control over it again anytime soon. She was working off of adrenaline, which if anything, had only increased while rounding people up.

Approaching the town, it seemed that the screaming was still present, but she was also able to hear the low murmur of talking. The screams had become fainter, with only a few people still transforming. Slowing down, she gingerly hopped onto the road, and upon seeing that it didn’t hurt her if she went slower, she trotted along the road. Deputy Durland and Sheriff Blubs followed closely behind her. Turning a corner, she saw a crowd of townsfolk, moonlight throwing them into a sharp focus. Shrinking back briefly, she steeled herself and stalked forward silently. Some townsfolk stared at her, but were overall very placid. She trudged on until she heard Grunkle Stan’s voice.

Or, at least, she thought it was. It had his speech pattern, but it was deeper and more gravely. Guessing it was just the outcome of being turned into whatever he was, she followed his voice. Moving through the crowd, she soon saw Stan in the middle of the group, explaining what had happened. He had definitely changed from when she had last seen him, curved horns grew up from his head, and his wings had grown, wingspan nearly three times the size of her. His eyes had turned a neon yellow, his teeth were sharp and jagged, his dentures had most likely popped out. He also had a large, swooping tail that looked as if it could take someone's head off. But many townsfolk didn’t really seem to recognize anything, eyes glazed over or wild. Most of them understood what was going on though, which was good enough for her. They’d help each other out. Glancing back at the police, she noticed that they were tense, flinching whenever someone made a sudden movement. Her heart tightened uncomfortably at the sight, so she went back to them to drag them out of the crowd.

Out of the crowd, she guided them back to the police station, hoping they’d be more comfortable there. Walking through the streets at night made her a little uncomfortable, but she carried on, the soft whimpers of the two police urging her on. As they walked along they saw Gideon herding more townsfolk to the meeting, impatient but careful. Reaching the station, she glared at the doorknob before trying to open the door. Just as before, her hand slipped on it, but this time she able to get a grip on it. Opening the door, she smiled, cheering on the inside. The smell of old coffee and moldy, sugary doughnuts assaulted her nose the moment she stepped inside, making her drop her smile. Wincing, she took another step forward, moving aside to let Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland in. Flinching at the smell in their office, they cautiously moved inside.

“Wow. We sshould probably clean thiss placce up.” The whippet head spoke up, -Deputy Durland- as he looked around, wrinkling his nose.

“You know what? That’ss a good idea, but you know how we sshould do it?”

They both glanced at each other, then at the same time they excitedly exclaimed, “Blindfolded!”

Well at least they were back to their normal habits, though she wasn't sure how they’d get the blindfolds on. Or how they'd clean with them on. Slipping out quietly, she was about to head back to the crowd when she realised where she had ended up. She was close to the houses that Grenda and Candy lived in, just a couple blocks away. She was sure that Mabel would be happy if someone checked in with her friends, besides they were her friends too. In a way. Walking over there, she was relieved but also worried to hear no screaming. Maybe they were at the meeting, but she had to check here first. No sense in walking back and forth after all. Picking the one closest to her, -she didn’t remember whose house belong to who, just the addresses- she opened the door slowly, checking inside before entering.

Stepping into the darkened house, the floorboards creaked ominously under her feet. Shadows seemed to leap from their places, shifting and moving. Honestly, she was a little freaked out. It probably looked a lot different in light, but right now, with tensions already high, it looked terrifying. Plus, she was trespassing, so that added to the atmosphere. Clicking on the lights, the shadow melted back into their places, but the silence remained untouched other than her breathing.

Thinking about the girls she fought unicorns with strengthened her resolve as she walked into the house. After a thorough search through the house, she decided that they’d gone to the meeting, when she stumbled upon one last door. Large, bright letters spelled out Candy’s name in a neat font, surrounded by colorful stickers and pictures of boys. Easing the door open, she was greeted by… nothing. Stepping into the room, she glanced around, eventually her eyes landed on…

“GAH!” She leapt backwards, eyes fixed on Candy.

Or at least, what she assumed was Candy. She was completely frozen, face one of shock. She was staring at her webbed hand, and she was entirely a dark green with a bowl-shaped indent in her head. A water bottle laid on the floor, creating a large wet spot on the carpet. What she was… seemed familiar. What was it… she was… a kappa! Now she remembers! Checking the bowl on top of her head revealed that it was indeed empty. Her parents must have went to the meeting, most likely thinking their daughter would follow them. Or maybe they went to get help. Going back to the kitchen she’d found, she filled up a glass with tap water. Coming back to Candy’s room, she trickled the water into the bowl in her head.

“Wah!” Candy spluttered, still looking at her hand, until she looked at Wendy and actually screamed, “How did you get in here? Who are you?”

She looked moments away from tackling Wendy, so she spoke quickly, “Calm down, its me Wendy! I got in through your door and found you frozen.”

Looking troubled, Candy asked in that way of hers, “Why do I feel the need to do anything you say?”

What? “Chill out, it’s just me. And, um, if you feel the need to, uh, do what I say, do this for me, don’t. Follow what you feel is right, not because I said it.” Upon saying this, Wendy remembered that kappas obey the command of whoever put water in their bowl, for whatever reason.

“Huh, I no longer feel the need to do that anymore, it’s like it just… vanished.” Candy added, no longer as distressed, but way more confused.

Huh, she must’ve taken what she said as a command, so she’s no longer bound to her. Sweet.

“So here’s what’s happening, we’ve both been turned into mythical creatures, along with the whole town.”

“Coool.”

Smiling at her response, she remembered Grenda, “Hey, I’m about to check on Grenda, do you wanna come with?”

“Sure! I wonder what she is… I bet she’s a unicorn!”

Leading her out of her room, they exited the house companionably. Turning, she stumbled on her own feet. Her adrenaline was running off, and she was quickly forgetting how to walk. With any luck, they’d be able to check on Grenda first, then she’d be able to go back home. The other townsfolk could take care of the rest, though she had no doubt of there being a town meeting in the morning. The street was silent and easy to traverse, though Candy looked as if she was having troubles walking and seeing.

It was then that Wendy realized that she could see very well in the dark, much more so than normal. Thank you, wolf eyes. Hopping onto the porch, Wendy hesitated, looking over at Candy. She didn’t want to just break into a house with a child, especially her friends house! Sucking in a breath, she grabbed the doorknob, only to find that it wouldn’t turn. Struggling with it for a few moments, she looked over at her small companion glumly. The door was locked. She wasn’t above breaking in, but again, this was someone they knew. Candy smirked slightly as she moved past Wendy to lift up a flower pot, revealing a small key underneath it.

“We’ve been friends for years, she put this here so I could come in whenever I wanted. Also, they often forget their keys.” Candy explained, grinning as she unlocked the door and stepped inside confidently.

“Nice.”

Walking inside, she noticed it wasn’t as creepy as Candy’s house. For starters, the lights were on, but perhaps more importantly, they heard voices. Okay, that may have made it more creepy, but at least someone was here. Creeping down the hallway, they followed the noise to a door that was slightly open. Splashing noises came from within, making Wendy nervous that they were going to walk in on someone in the bath. But apparently, Candy had no such reservations. She flung the door open before Wendy could stop her. Well. There was someone in the bath, but they weren’t naked, which was a relief.

Grenda was sitting innocently in the bath, lighting up when she saw Candy, “Hey, guys! Look! I’m an octopus now!”

She grabbed a black iridescent tentacle and waved it in their direction giddily, purple and pink flowing across it in the light.

“Woah! That is so cool!” Candy exclaimed, going closer to the tub.

“I know right! I wonder what happened…” Grenda mused, letting her limb sink back into the water.

“Since you guys didn’t go to the meeting I’ll tell you, the water that Stan sold turned out to be magical and it transformed everyone.” Wendy said offhandedly, seeing that they didn’t mind too much.

Looking at each other the two friends breathed out in unison, “Awesome!”

“Well, I’m going back to my house now. Later,” Wendy told them, deciding they had it under control.

Besides, she was completely exhausted. Maybe it was the transformation, of it was from running across town and back. Regardless, she felt ready to pass out.

“Bye Wendy!”

“See you!”

Weary, she traversed the streets back to the path that led to her house, watching the people head into their own homes. Some were even helping the ones who haven’t adjusted back into their homes. Stumbling the entire way to her house, she flopped down on her bed. Tomorrow was going to be interesting. But, it was going to be okay. Hopefully.


	9. Chapter 9

Shivers wracked Dippers body as he woke up suddenly, the slight breeze that ran across his damp clothes dropping the temperature drastically. Blinking his eyes in protest of the the rude awakening, he found himself staring at the… pool? Oh, right. He groggily wiped at his eyes while trying to stop trembling. Trying to lift up the hand closest to the water, he found it impeded by a strangely warm hand. Panicking, he went to shake it off before he realized who it was connected to. Mabel floated in the water, small flecks of glitter surrounding her in a sparkling, rainbow cloud. Tightening his grip on her hand, he looked at her transformation. She had a bright pink tail that faded into a lighter pink, with a pastel pink ridge that connected it with her torso.

Looking up in the sky, he saw the moon sitting heavily on the mountains, ready to go down to wake up the sun. Figuring he could deal with the cold for a little while longer, he curled back up and went to sleep, never letting go of his twins hand. In what felt like just moments later, the sun shone through his eyelids, driving the black away. Groaning, he curled up tighter in protest, shying away from the suns far too cheery light. This was ignored though, as the sun simply rose higher in the sky, waking his sister up.

“Wake up bro-bro! Bwap!” Her cheerful voice was prompting him to open up his eyes, but what really woke him up was a cold, wet sleeve slapping him in the face.

Recoiling, he shot up into a sitting position, “I’m up, I’m up!”

Laughing at him, Mabel sunk into the water as he wiped his face futilely, moist clothes not doing much good.

“Why’d you wake me up so early?” He asked, a little put out that he had been woken up.

“Everyone has been transformed, so there’s going to be a town meeting today! Since everyone is gathering there, I want you to tell me what people turned into!” Mabel exclaimed, bright eyed in joy.

Smiling, he responded, “I won’t be able to remember all of them, but I’ll tell you some okay?”

“Deal!”

“Alright, do you know when the meeting is?”

“Nah.”

He sighed, “They’ll probably just use the bell, so I’ll wait ‘till then.”

Dipper looked over to his sister, only to find her smirking. Oh, no. His clothes had **_just_** dried out. As soon as he had this thought, she splashed him with water. Oh, it’s on.

Throwing his arms into the water, he made a wave that washed over her, while shouting, “Revenge!”

“Ha! Your attacks do nothing! I am one with the water!” She yelled, splashing him back.

Unfortunately, her motion pushed her off the wall, so she sank to the bottom of the pool, where she looked up in disbelief. Laughing openly at her expression, he leaned over the water to watch her struggle to get back up.

“For being one with the water, you don’t seem to have much control in it,” He remarked smugly once she had resurfaced and grabbed onto the ledge.

“No fair,” She complained, though smiling.

“‘No fair’? You’re the one who pushed of the wall.” He returned, pouring water on her head.

Grinning back at him, she was about to splash him back when they heard a voice.

“Is someone there?”

Looking at each other, Dipper got up unsteadily, while Mabel pushed herself along the wall towards the voice. Ow. He was very, very sore, and also tired. But curiosity and fear drove him to the voice. Eventually, they ended up far from where they were, unable to locate the voice that had gone silent.

“Hello?” Dipper called out, not willing to believe he’d made himself move for nothing.

A muffled gasp before the lone voice spoke up again, “I’m in solitary.”

Looking at Mabel, they shared an equally confused glance, before her eyes dropped down and she also gasped. She almost pushed off the wall in shock, but managed to restrain herself.

“Dipper! There’s someone in here!” She half-whispered, eyes wide in shock.

“What? Really?” He asked, also in shock.

“Yes, I’ve been in here since I accidentally pushed a kid in pool jail, he got a bruise. He was quick to brush it off, but the lifeguard wasn’t,” The kid mournfully spoke up, a slight rasp in his voice.

“How long have you been down there?” Dipper questioned, alarmed by his rough voice.

“I’m not sure, a year I think.”

The twins looked at each other again before Dipper noticed he was standing on a circular metal cover. Kneeling down, he pushed his fingers through the gaps and pulled it off. He saw the kid with countless tally marks covering the wall behind him and stray wrappers that littered the floor. The kid looked up in surprise, before hissing at the light and covering his eyes. Oof, he knew the feeling, but for the kid it was definitely worse. Blinking, the kid looked up out of his hole, eyes squinted, then gave a small smile. Smiling back at him, he offered his hand to the kid, who took it eagerly. Hauling him out, the kid glanced around, teary eyed, before hugging Dipper. Dipper was able to see how his eyes widened at the contact, unsure of his action, and unused to contact after a year.

“Thank you! It’s been so long!” He stepped back, beaming, before getting a strange look on his face, “Are you- are you half-deer? Is that a mermaid!?”

Oops. “That it. I’ve finally lost it.” At this point he slumped to the ground, defeated.

“Err…” Dipper trailed off, not sure what to say.

“Nope! We were transformed! You’re not losing it.” Mabel chimed in, saving Dipper from babbling.

The kid looked over at her, then he shrugged, still down but at least ready to try. Shakily he stood up and glanced around.

“Is anybody around?”

“Nah, the pool hasn’t opened yet, plus they also have transformed.” Mabel answered.

“Oh, okay.”

Dipper opened his mouth, maybe to ask how he’d survived down there, when the meeting bell rang out.

“Oh! Gotta go!” Dipper hastily said, trotting over to the gate.

“See you bro-bro! Don’t forget to tell me what people are now!” Mabel shouted.

“Got it! Bye!”

Just before he got out of earshot he heard Mabel say, “Soooo, who’s your family?”

~~~~~

Arriving in town, he saw people heading to the town hall, though many of them were clumsy to say the least. One person tripped and smacked into the road, choosing to lie there for a long moment before they sighed and got back up. Cantering to the town hall, he slipped in to see Ford and Stan onstage. The only reason he was able to recognize them was from what he’d seen last night, besides their clothes were the same. Grunkle Stan was… a rock with wings, and Ford was a cat with wings. Fords wings went from golden to red, then to blue while Stans wings were more batlike, and it appeared to have his brand. His back was to the audience, and he was clearly to hide it the best he could, but Dipper managed to see it. Soon, the meeting began.

Clearing his throat, Ford began to speak, wings fluffing up a bit, “Now, I’m sure everyone is confused about what happened to cause this. To put it simply, there was a magic stream that was accidentally sold as bottled water. This caused the changes, but we’re working on a way to resolve it.”

Murmurs of understanding floated up from the crowd- now that the Society of the Blind Eye had dispersed, the residents of Gravity Falls had gotten used to the sight of the supernatural. Many people even embraced it, exploring it, or even letting their children play with the more non-threatening creatures. It had just become another part of the small town. Even if it sometimes came with unexpected consequences. Though, it was usually just getting pink hair for a week, which Mabel was ecstatic about, and had asked the fairies to do for her. She was pretty happy with the results. It wasn’t permanent and had no side-effects, that way our parents had no idea it even happened.

Of course some people didn’t like it all that much, one of which spoke up, “Who sold us the stream water? Don’t they care?”

Stan cringed slightly, wings tensing behind him, but not very many people noticed, they were all busy glaring at the person who said it.

“He said accident! Why-” “There’s no need to place blame-” “-say that again! I dare you!”

Stan stepped forward, wings grating together nervously, creating a low sound, “I did it, no need to jump at eachothers throats. It was an accident, even I was transformed.”

Reluctantly, the crowd grew silent again, and another person spoke out, “Is there any progress on the antidote, or whatever this needs? I know we just turned, but your great-nephew turned some time ago right?”

“Yes, he did transform about three days ago, unfortunately, we have not made any progress,” Ford answered, sounding both a little put out, but also glad for a real question.

The audience, satisfied by the answer, remained silent until the meeting was dispersed.

Dipper trotted up to the stage, narrowly hopping on it, “Hey, do you know what Grenda and Candy are?”

“Huh, why are you asking? And where were you last night?” Grunkle Stan demanded, more concerned than he let on.

“Mabel wanted to know, we were at the pool.”

“Ah, well I’m not sure.”

“Hey guys, Candy is a kappa and Grenda is half-octopus.” Wendy said as she wobbled in, tail moving slightly side to side.

“How’d you know I was asking about them?” Dipper asked, slightly bewildered.

Wendy simply flicked her ears in means of explanation.

“Oh, alright, thanks. How do you know what they are?”

“I checked up on them last night.”

“How did they handle being mythical creatures?”

“They were pretty excited. I also met up with Robbie who, get this, is a zombie.”

Bursting out laughing at imagining the thought of Robbie, who had a stitched heart on his jacket, as a zombie, he managed to choke out, “That fits him waay too well.”

Grinning Wendy responded, “I know right! His parents are ghosts, so now his house is literally a place for the dead!”

Giggling, he replied, “No way! That sound like a cheesy horror movie!”

“Yeah! The dead house, no one comes out alive, coming soon! Also, Deputy Durland and Sheriff Blubs are dogs… but they are connected!”

“How so?”

“Two different breeds split down the middle with two heads!”

Dipper was fairly certain his Grunkles thought he was going crazy when he burst out laughing again, but he couldn’t help it. He wasn’t laughing because of his crush, he got over that over the school year, but because Wendy was genuinely funny. He was glad he’d gotten over his crush, Wendy was one of the coolest people to be friends with. His Grunkles edged away from the conversation, unnoticed by either of them.

“What breeds are they,” He wheezed as soon as he was able to.

“A whippet and a pitbull.”

The mental image of that was almost too much to handle. He snorted. Loudly. Slapping his hands over his mouth, he felt a blush crawling up his neck, cheeks, and ears. He felt as if he was brighter than Mabel's tail.

Wendy, meanwhile just seemed amused, “Yo, I didn’t know snorted when you laughed.”

The blush deepened as he spoke, words muffled slightly by his hands, “Neither did I.”

Seeing how embarrassed he was, she mimed the familiar action of zipping her lips, and throwing away the key. Smiling, his blush faded slightly as he mimicked the action, safe in the knowledge she wouldn’t tell.

“So what did Mabel turn out to be?”

“She turned into a mermaid with a pink tail.”

“Nice, she like it?”

“I think so, are you liking your new body?”

She hesitated for a moment, before grinning, “It’s off and on, I like it because it feels kinda cool, but I’m beginning to notice way too much stuff.”

“Like…?”

“Ugh, I woke up at two a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep until I had found a slice of moldy pizza and threw it outside.”

“Ew…”

“Yeah, but it’s not like I knew it was there! I think one of my brothers left it in there, like the monsters they are.”

“What did they turn into?”

“I don’t know yet, they went to training early in the morning. Not much stops them from training short of a bus hitting them.”

Chuckling, Dipper added, “Well, I’m going to go back to the pool, thanks for telling me what they turned into.”

“No problem dude.”

Stepping off the stage, he headed to the doors only to be stopped by Wendy calling out, “Hey! Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Confused, he turned back to see her holding his cap out to him. Smiling, he walked back up and swapped hats, managing to stay still even as she ruffled his hair, though he complained. He was still grinning as he went back through the door.


	10. Chapter 10

Returning to the pool, Dipper trotted up to Mabel, who was alone now, “Hey, where’d the kid go?”

“He said he was going to go looking for his family. He said they’d tried to get him out, but Mr. Poolcheck almost sued. He also kicked them out after punching his father. They were really persistent, but the last time he saw them was last summer. But he did mention that he saw a flicker of red in the trees.” She explained, tail flicking in the water, showing worry.

“That must have been the Society of the Blind Eye, they must’ve gone after people who have not only had seen creatures, but those who had bad memories too. But sued? Punched?!” He was almost hesitant to ask, but Poolcheck was crazy and he knew it was probably the truth.

“Yeah, he was really angry, and he ‘gave more time’ to the kid. Also, I may have exaggerated the ‘punching’, he, uh, he threw his prosthetic hand at him. The suing was for trespassing at night when they were trying to get their kid out.” Mabel said sheepishly, though Dipper was more bewildered that Poolcheck got so angry he lobbed his hand at someone.

How did someone even get that angry? Did he stare them down as he twisted it off? Was a heat of the moment type of thing where he just ripped it off at chucked it at them? He was certainly strong enough to do that. Did the keys fall out? Did he make a fist before detaching it so it could hit them better? Dipper had so many questions.

“Was this right before they got their memories erased?” He decided on, wondering if this was the traumatic memory that the Society of the Blind Eye found important to get rid of.

“Yeah, they came back to tell him they would try again tomorrow, but they never did.” Mabel added, sounding downcast.

“Sounds rough.”

“Mhmm, he was ecstatic to try and find them again, especially after I told him that they may have just had their memories altered.”

“Thank goodness it sounds like they wanted him back, that means they most likely will remember him.” That’s right, once Fiddleford got his memories back, he had figured out that he had a failsafe implanted in the memory gun, one that he hadn’t even realized he had put in.

If someone wanted to remember what they had lost, they would. Sometimes it just needed some help, or a push.

“Agreed, he knows where they lived in last, so he should get home safely.”

A beat of silence before, “Soo, what is everyone?”

“Oh yeah, Candy is a kappa, Grenda is half-octopus. Wendy, who's now a werewolf, checked up on them last night. Grunkle Stan is… cement? With wings? I’m not entirely sure. Grunkle Ford is a cat with wings.” He answered, ticking them off on his fingers.

“Eeee! That sounds amazing!” She gasped, eyes sparkling with excitement, “I’m going to make sweaters for everyone!”

“I’m sure they’d like that.” He encouraged, hoping he was included in getting a sweater.

Hey, he’d really like a sweater, Mabel made the best sweaters. Even if the one made out of llama hair was a bit strange. Mabel’s stomach interrupted their conversation, growling loudly, which reminded the both of them that they hadn’t eaten in some time.

“Any idea what mermaids eat?”

“Mermando was interested in a sandwich, but they don’t have that in the ocean. So maybe whatever humans eat, but especially seafood.”

“Alright, I’ll get some food from the shack, I’ll be right back.”

But before he even managed to take a step, a yellow and black blur vaulted the fence, feet hitting the ground with a resounding thud. It stood up slowly, eyes locked on them, before it let out a low growl. Drool slithered out of its mouth in drooping strands, its ears were flat against its head and its whiskers were twitching. Finally processing it, Dipper startled as he realized it was half puma, half panther in a clean split. Seems like they weren’t the only ones who were hungry. It stalked over to them, snarling heavily in its throat, with feral, mismatched eyes looking hungrily over them.

Was that- was that… Tyler Cutebiker?! His only recognizable feature was a stretched and ripped tank top, plus the fact that they’d seen him with a sewn together shirt of the two animals. His amber and green eyes looked at them maliciously, still stalking forward. He let out another growl as he shortened the distance between them. Barely thinking, Dipper lunged in front of Mabel, arms spread wide. He felt his ears flatten against his head, felt how he trembled in every limb. In spite of this he stood defiantly as the creature hesitated before moving closer again.

“T-tyler, it’s us. We’re- we’re not food.” Dipper tried to reason, words forming shakily.

He only got another snarl for a response. Dipper tensed further, blocking out everything but him, narrowing his eyes. He felt the shaking stop, but he barely registered it, only focused on the cats calculating eyes and precise steps. He didn’t even notice Mabel breathing out in awe, nor the deep snapping sound of something that grew almost as loud as thunder. He did notice, however, when a giant shadow fell upon them, shaking him out of his stupor. He looked up to see a dark, ominous shape that moved over them rapidly, which made Dipper crouch down in fear.

“IDON'TKNOWHOWTOLAND,” Came the slurred shriek of the creature above them, near somersaulting in the sky.

That- that’s a problem. A big problem. He watched the shape spin before getting control for a brief second, then once again spiralling. His eyes flicked over to Tyler, who was similarly crouched down, looking nervously at the sky. Taking advantage of that, he sprung forward, trying to pin the wild cat down. Unfortunately, he must have made a sound, because the felines eyes snapped back to him. Then Tyler sprang forward. They clashed in the air, hooves meeting fur, and claws scrambling for purchase against him, snagging his fur.

They hit the ground just a second later, breaking apart and eyeing the other warily. Almost as if a signal had been given, they sprang forward simultaneously. For a moment they tussled wildly until Tyler had him pinned down firmly, claws digging into his deer shoulders and belly. The mythical cat snarled at his prey, jaws widening and sinking towards his neck. In a last ditch effort, Dipper kicked up, feeling his hooves meet the solid wall of flesh. The cat flew skidding back, claws giving him no purchase against the wet tile. Wet? For a split-second, Dipper looked over to see Mabel sending water onto the tiles, before he took advantage of the moment and pinned the man down.

“Tyler! It’s fine, it’s okay. Calm down.”

For a moment, it didn’t seem like he’d stop struggling, but he soon layed limp, if only to glare at Dipper. Now how to calm him down? Maybe… well, he is a cat... nervously, Dipper leaned down, hooves still holding Tyler down, and scratched behind his ears. For a moment, everything was still, other than the uncontrolled shape above them, before Tyler let out a purr, finally relaxing. They both ignored the shout of, ‘HOWDOYOUCONTROLTHISTHING’.

A glimmer of recognition entered his eyes before he stilled, eyes widening, “Where am I? What happened?”

Relief entered Dipper's voice as he responded to the slur, getting off of the confused man, “You’re at the pool, the town has been transformed into mythical creatures, including you.” He gestured at his lower half, then at Mabel.

“Oh…”

“Uh guys? There’s still someone about to crash.” Mabel spoke up, pointing at the sky.

They both looked up at the sky, which had the feline shrieking and diving under the nearest chair. The shape was teetering towards the town, which was the worst place to land… or crash.

“Hey!” Dipper called out, using both sets of lungs to his advantage, “Try to angle yourself back here!”

“HOW!?” The shape called back, almost screaming.

“Uh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s like driving a car?”

“THISISNOTHINGLIKEDRIVINGACAR!”

Looking back at his sister, he shrugged before shouting back, “Use your tail! Try lowering the wing closest to the pool!”

All he got in response this time was a scream as the shape spiraled back towards the pool. After a moment, it straightened out, but it was still dropping.

“Straighten out your wings and flap once!”

The shape did as told, but was now heading down towards the forest as a result of lifting their tail too high, “IMGONNACRASH!”

And they did. Dipper saw at least five trees fall. The impact shook the ground slightly.

“I’m going to- I’m going to go check on them.”

His sister simply nodded, but as he was heading out, she shouted, “Find out who that was and what they are!”

He chose to give his twin a simple thumbs up before heading out. It wasn’t hard to find them, he just had to follow the smoke. And the feathers. And the screaming. Soon he made it to the crash site to find a light tan dragon, with large wings covered in cream colored feathers. Their tail had similar feathers resting at the tip of it, but the rest of the body was scales, other than along its spine and at the top of its head. The dragon was presently panicking, while the tree in front of it burned.

“Why is that tree burning?!”

“I accidentally breathed some fire when I crashed!” It was trying to pace while also trying to not knock any trees down, giving it the appearance of jogging in place.

They hastily began to pat at the tree, making it fall over. Judging by the surprised expression on their face, they hadn’t meant to do that. Then they began to stomp on it, trying to put it out, but that just made the embers hop to another tree, setting it on fire. They probably would've taken out the entire forest if Dipper didn’t stop them.

“Please stop, there’s a pool over there. I’ll grab some buckets to put it out.”

The townsperson looked embarrassed, morosely watching the flames lick away at the trees. Feeling sorry for them, Dipper headed to the pool, hoping to prevent the forest from going down. Making it back to the pool, he found Mabel talking to Tyler, explaining what had happened. Tyler was laying down next to the pool, but winced as he leaned on one of his shoulders. Did he do that? He didn’t mean to hurt him….

“Hey bro-bro! Find out who it is?” She inquired as soon as she saw him.

“Not yet, but they’re a dragon!” He replied, excited.

“A dragon! That’s so cool!”

“Yeah, but they set some trees on fire.”

“That explains why there’s so much smoke.”

Glancing to where the crash was, Dipper groaned, there was now a healthy plume of dark grey smoke billowing up. He rushed over to the storage room, and upon finding it locked, he crawled awkwardly through a window. Noting an absence of many inflatable ducks, he smirked as he looked for the buckets. Grabbing three buckets, he stumbled upon a bright red metal object. Shifting aside pool noodles, he found himself face to face with a fire extinguisher. Smiling at it, he slung it under his arm and opened the door from the inside. He then filled the buckets with pool water, holding one in each hand, with one in in his mouth and trotted towards the entrance, fire extinguisher held securely under an arm.

“I’ll get some food after I deal with the fire, be right back.” He said, speaking around the handle.

“Alright! Bring cake!”

Grinning, he nodded, and galloped towards the smoke. Leaping over a log, he came once again upon the dragon. Whose tail was smoking. Panicking, he ripped the fire extinguisher from under his arm, dropping two buckets, that luckily didn’t tip, and spraying at the tail just as it caught fire. The townsperson looked at their slightly charred tail, surprised as Dipper continued to spray at the fire that threatened to consume the trees. Spluttering, the fire extinguisher ran out, so he doused the remaining embers in pool water.

“Thank you, are you the person who got me away from the town?” The dragon asked, head tilted as it sat down, tail curling over its feet.

“That’s me, but I have to ask, why did you try to fly?” Dipper asked, puzzled as to why someone would try to fly so soon.

“Um, I, uh,” The dragon stammered, before lowering his head and admitting, “There was a spider, it crawled on my foot and I got startled. Once I was off the ground, I realized I had no idea how to land.”

“Alright, well, um, I have to go get food, but would you mind telling me who you are?”

“Fiddleford McGucket, thanks for making sure I didn’t burn down the forest.”

“No problem, now I have to get far too much cake and sandwiches.” Dipper said, exasperated at Mabel’s eating habits.

He could just not grab it, but he didn’t want the ‘Christmas Sugar Shortage Incident’ to happen again. Basically, after Christmas, all of the sugar in the house had been used up or eaten, in the following days, there was no sugar in stores. Mabel had grown moody and vicious, before essentially shutting down, curled up on the kitchen floor. Dipper had to bring out his secret stash of Oreos to get her to get up again. Of course, even since then, he made sure she never ate too much sugar, but he got the feeling that she’d be needing some to deal with her new transformation.

“Understandable, now I have to figure out how to get home without flying.” For his part, he just sounded amused, tail and wings flicking.

“Hey, by the way, would you happen to know how to help solve this?” He was a genius after all, now that he had his memory back, he had invented many things that were sold and helped the science community grow and advance.

“No… not that I can think- wait! Back when I had no memory, I recall going into a cave for shelter. There was- there was paintings of a stream, when people went in, they changed. I stopped looking after that, but I might be able to find that cave again, maybe that can help.”

“That would be helpful, and I think you could just walk through town.”

“Alright, thanks Dipper.”

“Anytime. Tell me if you find anything.”

“I’ll do that.” The dragon grinned down at him before heading towards the town, tail dragging on the ground.


	11. Chapter 11

When the Mystery Shack came into sight, Dipper picked up the pace from his leisurely trot to just below a gallop. Hopping onto the porch easily, he barely touched the door handle when the door burst open. Leaping back in fear, he saw the door torn off its hinges, being held by the handle by a very surprised looking shirtless Stan. Stan stared at the door in shock, and -unless he was hallucinating- in pain. After a moment of him staring at it, wings fluttering in distress, he stepped out onto the porch and tried to wedge the door back into place, ultimately failing as the door just fell inwards, causing him to flinch back.

“Stan?” Dipper spoke up, walking towards him.

“What? Oh, hey Dipper. It was like this when I got here.” Stan replied, standing in front of the door as if that would hide it.

“I mean, I did just see you pull it off, but okay.” He answered casually, stepping onto the porch with a smirk.

After grumbling a bit, Stan stepped aside only for his eyes to widen, wings flaring as he grabbed Dippers arm, “Kid, you’re bleeding!”

Looking at his deer half, he saw long streaks where fur was clumped or missing, with blood ebbing out of the shoulders and some blood dripping to the ground below him from cuts he couldn’t quite see, “Oh. I didn’t notice.”

“...C’mon, lets get you patched up.” Stan said, heading back into the shack, nearly hitting Dipper with his tail.

Following him, Dipper saw the giant brand on his wing, black standing out amidst the grey. Focusing back on his surroundings, he took in the trashed shack, which seemed to make his grunkle cringe whenever he looked at a particularly damaged place.

“What happened here?” Dipper asked in slight fear, deer instincts wondering if this was a safe place.

Before Stan got the chance to say anything, Soos came skidding around the corner, leaving the lower half of his body in a trail. The trail came back to him, forming under him back into legs, then he continued running. Wendy came barreling around the corner after him, bright red-orange fur a blur as she knocked down a vase to Stan’s pain. Pouncing, she tackled Soos, almost smearing him across the floor. Tail whipping back and forth, she leaned down and growled at him before bouncing off of him and trotting off, head held high.

“Dudes. Never make dog jokes around Wendy.” Soos said from his position on the floor, slowly reforming.

Stan looked as if he had a migraine. Actually, he probably did have one. Not sure what to do, Dipper patted his arm, hoping to comfort him. Stan gave him a small smile, so Dipper counted it as a win. Together they headed into the kitchen to find an also shirtless Ford curled up in a patch of sun, sleeping. Hilariously, this patch of sun was on the table, and so was Ford, a plate of pancakes squashed under him. He was softly purring, so it didn’t appear to bother him much. Though Stan rolled his eyes, Dipper noticed that he made an effort to keep quiet as he walked to the first aid kit. Going into the living room, Stan washed the cuts out gently with water before grabbing a bandage roll, wrapping it around the wounds.

“... Did one of the townspeople do this?” Stan asked, which would have seemed innocent, had his wings not raised in anger.

“Yeah, but they didn’t know what was going on. They were still… feral.” Dipper explained, hoping to dispel some anger, “Plus I’m not that badly hurt.”

Stan stared at him for a moment before turning back to his wounds. Since his wings had lowered slightly, Dipper decided not to push it. After a moment of silence, Stan finished, standing up to put the kit back. After he left, Dipper looked at the gauze and was reminded of when he first saw his new body. While he was staring at the bandages, a sudden screech came from the kitchen, scaring him half to death.

Bolting towards the noise -no matter how much he wanted to run away- he saw Ford, fur raised, wings up, eyes slitted, and on his toes. As a pancake slowly fell off of him, he seemed to realize what he was doing and stumbled off the table before clearing his throat and shuffling awkwardly. Stan was standing near the sink -presumably to wash off his hands after some blood got on him- bewildered and looking at a spot on the floor. Looking at it, Dipper saw a something small, blue, and nearly flat on the floor. The thing peeled itself off the floor before flying unsteadily up.

“Sorry about that Gideon, but what are you doing here?” Ford asked, looking calm though his wings were practically vibrating and his tail whipped back and forth.

The bat chirped indignantly before transforming, “I was hungry, and I also have some questions.”

Ford shrugged, offering his arm as he waited for him to speak, which Gideon readily did,“I was wondering about direct sunlight. Can it really kill me? What about wooden stakes? Garlic?”

“Sunlight will kill you if you stay out in it for too long, but short exposure will just end up in a bad sunburn. The longer you stay out, the worse it gets. Going out as a bat is usually fine, since they have tougher skin and fur to protect them. Constant overexposure to sun will likely develop into skin cancer, considering that a vampire's skin is much more delicate than a natural human. The more delicate skin is partially due to the fact that they’re technically dead, but also partially to make the transformation into a bat easier.”

At this point, Gideon interrupted him, horrified, “Dead?”

“Well, technically, yes. As your body transformed, all of your living cells died, being replaced with vampire ones, which also modified your organs. Of course, though these cells are alive, you still have undergone massive cell death, resulting in the ‘technically’. Wooden stakes, while they could kill you, not any more than anything else if you’ve been stabbed in the heart. Garlic is a myth based on the fact that mosquitoes have an aversion to it.” At some point during Ford’s explanation, Gideon had turned back into a bat and was drinking blood, and Dipper had begun to make sandwiches.

When Dipper tuned back into the conversation, having known this already, he heard Ford explaining that vampires don’t actually count things. That was just a trait of Count Dracula, which earned him his name. Curiosity and hunger satisfied, Gideon flew up, and after a grateful chirp, headed out an open window.

“Hey, Grunkle Ford? What creatures are you and Stan?” Dipper hadn’t realized how much the question was burning at him until after he’d asked it.

“Hm? Oh, I’m a sphynx and Stan is a gargoyle.” Ford answered, rubbing at the bite absentmindedly.

“Sphynx and gargoyle… oh. How did I not realize? I’ve read about them!” Dipper began to pace, agitated and worried.

“They are not very well known… and we look somewhat different than what they are described as.” Ford began as he watched Dipper pace with some concern.

“But I’m supposed to be smart!” Dipper burst out, hands snaking into his hair, pulling slightly and knocking his hat askew, “I’ve read about them! I should’ve known!”

“Dipper…”

He wasn’t listening, fear overriding him as he thought about it. What if he’d been in a more dangerous situation? What if he couldn’t recognize something? He wouldn’t know how to defeat it! Someone could get hurt! Be it him, or someone he cared about, or even a stranger! What if it was Mabel? What would he do then? What if- a hand clamped down on his shoulder, cutting through the mind-numbing haze.

“Dipper. Being smart isn’t a person's ability to memorize everything in a book. It is about your ability to adapt to change, how to apply knowledge that you’ve learned and what you already know. How to mix new things with old things, sparking even better things! It’s knowing the difference between thinking you know everything and admitting that you don’t. I've met a couple of genius's, and you’re one of the smartest I’ve seen.” Ford said, eyes shining as he looked at Dipper.

Blushing, Dipper grinned at Ford as he felt himself calm down, “Thanks Grunkle Ford.”

“No problem Dipper,” Ford replied, dropping his hand, “Now, I believe your sister is waiting for sandwiches?”

“Oh, right!” Dipper exclaimed, trotting to the counter, feeling lighter, before adding, “How’d you know some were for her?”

Grinning, Ford pointed to to half of a cake that Dipper put on the plate and the sandwiches that had mustard on them. Sheepishly, Dipper rubbed the back of his neck, eyes down. Mabel loves mustard, while Dipper… would rather throw it out the window to say the least. This feeling was only enhanced when he became half-deer. It smelled awful. Grabbing the plate, he nodded his goodbye to his grunkle before heading to the door. However, just before he opened it, someone knocked on it. After pausing for a second, he opened the door, revealing someone in a worn purple hoodie, and white sunglasses. He felt a strange sense of déjà vu even before they spoke.

“I need your help.”


	12. Chapter 12

“Pacifica?” Dipper asked in shock, taking a small step forward, “Why are you here? Need help with what?”

Before the party last summer, and perhaps even a little longer after that, Dipper would not have been so concerned. Now, after almost a year, things had changed. They had come to understand and tolerate the other more until they could be hesitantly called ‘friends’. After all, it was hard not to accept each other after the twins came back to Gravity Falls, and Pacifica was invited to a sleepover by Mabel after she found out that Pacifica’s parents had gotten into yet another fight. Now, Pacifica dropped by whenever she felt caged in by her parent, simply didn’t want to go home, or was invited over. It was… awkward at first, but everyone soon accepted the situation, and Pacifica became part of the family.

Dipper suspected she had learned kindness after working in the Greasy Diner, having lost so much money. Well, kinda. Her family still had a decent amount of money and they were richer than most in Gravity Falls. Dipper believed that people could learn kindness by actions of yourself and the ones around you, and Pacifica certainly showed it. Which was helped along by her insistence to work in the diner -Dipper suspected it was because of a certain beloved pony they almost got rid of- and Lazy Sue’s efforts to help her.

“Something happened and I don’t know what to do! My transformation is the worst!” She made no move to remove her sunglasses or hood, which struck Dipper as strange.

“Well, I’m sure it’s not that bad, since you were able to get here.” Dipper said as he tried very hard not to look at his own legs, but his gaze flicked down to her legs.

Huh? He only looked for a second, but he could swear he didn’t see any.

“I dragged myself here most of the way,” She admitted, arm crossing over her stomach and grabbing her other arm.

He whistled, noticing dirt covering her hoodie, “Must be important.”

She nodded, then burst out, “My parents turned into stone!”

What? “What happened?”

“I don’t know! I came out of my room after drinking the water, and when they looked at me, they turned into stone! They were in the middle of transforming, and I didn’t know what to do! So I went to the meeting, and no-one looked at me, so they were safe. But after it, I went home and they were still stone!”

“Whoa. Are you okay? Why would your parents drink the water from here? It sounds like… oh! You’re probably a gorgon, they turn people into stone. Do you have snakes for hair?” He questioned as he thought about everything he knew about gorgons.

“Yes? And yeah, I’m good.” She sounded as though she was relieved that knew what it was, but trying to play it off, “My parents drank the water because their wish was to become rich again.”

“Of course it was. Come in, we’ll see if Ford knows anything to counter it.” Dipper suggested, moving aside to let her in.

An awkward silence fell upon them in which neither of them moved, and Dipper involuntarily looked at her legs. Only to find a pale, yellow tail. Well. That explained the ‘dragging’ bit.

“Oh, I’ll just- I’ll just go get him.” He wasn’t even sure how she was ‘standing’.

“Thanks,” Was her grateful reply as she leaned against the doorway.

He placed the plate onto a nearby table, and just as he was about to turn back, Soos came sprinting through the shack, leaving small puddles of clay where he stepped. He looked like he was holding something in his hand, but it was a little hard to tell, since his hand was melting. Then again, so was the rest of him. Noticing the open door, he turned towards it, panicking the two who were actually at the door as Wendy raced after him.

Just as the two started to move, a sudden cracking noise startled everyone in the vicinity as Soos’s barely formed foot went through a floorboard. An anguished, gravelly scream could be heard on the other side of the shack as Soos melted almost completely, seeping into the floorboards. Wendy took the chance and swiped the object out of where Soos’s hand would be as he slowly reformed. She glared at him as she stalked back, brushing clay off what seemed to be a phone. She brushed past Ford who seemed to have been trying to stop the two.

“Okay, okay. I know what you’re thinking dudes. ‘Why was Wendy chasing you?’ The short answer is; wolves aren’t fond of fetch.” Soos bellowed as he continued to pull himself back together, causing Dipper to flinch back.

When did Soos get so… loud?

Stan came charging in, broom in hand, “Is the shack under attack?! What’s happening!?” He took one look at the scene and looked as if he might cry, though you wouldn’t be able to tell if you hadn’t known him for long enough.

Well, it was probably more obvious now that his wings and tail drooped significantly.

Deciding to speak up before Ford wandered off, he called out, “Hey Grunkle Ford! Pacifica turned into a gorgon, and accidentally turned her parents into stone. What journal has stuff on gorgons again?” He had read them so many times that the details began to blend together, and he wasn’t up for flipping through all of the journals while Pacifica’s parents were still frozen.

“Journal one! And we’re in luck, I have glasses that will cancel out the effects of gorgons! Unfortunately, it won’t undo what has already been done, and we’ll have to make a potion for that.” Ford answered, happy to do something else other than chasing down the two.

“Wait, but her glasses seem to be working.”

“Oh, that’s because her snakes are also covered up, but they usually get agitated from being confined.”

As if to confirm what he said, a low hiss came from under the hood. He glanced at her hood, slightly worried, but they seemed to have calmed down.

Then he shrugged, about to step further into the shack when he remembered that she couldn’t exactly walk, “Oh, um…”

She sighed and braced herself, as if ready to drag herself across the floor. Luckily though, Stan noticed. And he doesn’t exactly care about personal barriers. He walked over to her and picked her up easily, bridal style. Last summer, she definitely would have complained. Well, they both would’ve. She still did, but it was more habit than anything. At least she didn’t threaten to sue.

“Wendy!” Dipper called out, waiting until the werewolf was back before continuing, “Could you bring this plate to the pool? Mabel’s hungry.”

“Sure man,” Was her reply before she grabbed the plate -Dipper grabbed one of his before she took it- and left.

Chewing on his sandwich, he walked alongside Stan. With Ford -who was trying desperately to keep his balance- leading the way, the odd group made their way to the basement. Stan also seemed to have troubles with walking, but was keeping steady out of sheer determination and stubbornness. However, just as they were about to step into the elevator, Pacifica's hood fell off. Dipper’s hearts dropped at the sight of a pale yellow snake’s head. He made eye contact and it seemed like he’d never look away. A split second later, a stony grey hand pulled the hood back over the snakes. Dipper felt faint, but managed to notice he wasn’t stone. In fact, he didn’t feel any different. Seeing that he didn’t turn into stone because he didn’t look into her eyes, his head immediately snapped towards the other two who might’ve looked into her eyes. A stone wall stood in front of him, and fear ran through his veins before he saw their faces. They seemed… fine?

“HA!” Grunkle Stan said explosively, wings twitching in amusement, “I’m already stone!”

Ford let out an amused and surprised snort while Dipper winced at the sudden sound. Dipper could only assume that Ford didn’t look at Pacifica because he was more careful, having dealt with gorgons before. The whole gargoyle not being affected by gorgons was new to Dipper though. He looked at Ford, curious as to if his grunkle had knew about it before, but sure enough, his hand twitched up to his pen. Meaning that he didn’t know, and wanted to write it down, but decided to wait. Dipper also wanted to write it down in the journals, but settled for discreetly writing it on his arm with a washable marker he always kept on hand. What? He wasn’t going to carry the journals everywhere. Well. Okay, not all of them at least, and this belonged in the first book.

Right now, he had the second book with him. After he finished writing it down, he squeezed into the elevator with the rest of them. Dipper had just enough time to think that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea before the elevator doors closed. He was completely squashed into the wall, with a faceful of feathers that tickled his nose and nearly got into his mouth. The snakes were hissing, and someone's tail was hitting him. He was certain it was Ford’s, or else it would hurt much, much more. Of course, this is when his stupid brain told him that, hey, we’re in a cramped space now, with _predators_. He knew it was stupid to think that, but his prey instincts thought it was a great idea to fully notice just how well he was trapped, and very suddenly, touch became too much.

He was hyper aware of everything that he was in contact with, to the cool metal of the elevator, to the brick-like bat wings that jabbed into him. He remembered how sharp all of their teeth were, even when he couldn’t see them. How defenceless he was. His breath was coming in short gasps now, even as he tried desperately to take a deep breath. Tried to remind himself that he was with friends, with family. That they would never hurt him. Yet, his heart beat faster. His vision swam, and his head became fuzzy. He felt his fur prickle along his spine. He began to tremble slightly.

“Dipper? Are you alright?”

No. He couldn’t speak. He didn’t even know who had spoken. The world spun slightly, not fast enough to make his head spin, but more than enough to make him feel sick. Just as he thought he was going to pass out or do something drastic, the elevator hit the bottom. He lept out of it, taking in a deep breath of air that smelled of smoke and he almost regretted it. Almost. They came out of the elevator, but he couldn’t quite recognize them. He backs up. He didn’t- he didn’t recognize them and he felt wrong. Very wrong, like he should. Should recognize them, but he can’t.

Why can’t he recognize them? Why did he need to? Does he need to? He feels sick, sick and like something is wrong. Very wrong. Wrongwrong **wrong**. They walk cautiously towards him. He takes a step back. They smell bad and wrong. Predators. They’re predators. Badbad _bad **bad**_. He backs up more. He feels sick, and they smell like predators, and everything seems wrong. He hates it, the world is blurry and he feels like he almost recognizes them, but he shouldn’t, they’re predators. They advance cautiously, and he instantly gets more alert. The world sharpens, and he tenses, bracing his hooves in the ground. They won’t take him.

He bares his teeth.


	13. Chapter 13

Stanford didn’t like to think that he made mistakes- not often at least. Those mistakes he did admit, were the much bigger ones. With Dipper snarling at them in a dark basement, he had to admit that he’d made a very big mistake. What did he think was going to happen if they put a prey species with predators in an enclosed space? Especially one who wasn’t used to his instincts? Hindsight truly did make you feel like an idiot. Alright, maybe that wasn’t the saying, but it was how he felt. He put his arm out in front of Stan, cautioning him so he didn’t move further. Though, it seemed as he needn’t have worried about that, as Stan had already stepped back. He must have realized that while he was carrying Pacifica, he’d be seen as two predators. Ford took a half-step forward, painfully aware that Mabel wasn’t here to calm him down this time.

Of course, Stanley had been very proud of her and bragged about it to him. Ford, frankly, had been taken somewhat aback, since cervitaurs normally hate human interaction. But, if anyone was going to bring him back, it was her. Now she wasn’t there, and he had to be very aware of his movements. Naturally, Dipper tensed when he came the small bit closer, ready to spring. He took a deep breath, and then kneeled down, hoping to come across as a bit more friendly. He knew that he was very exposed, and should that anything prompt him, Dipper could very well hurt him. Dipper’s ears twitched up, even as he crouched lower to the ground, focused on Ford.

“Hey, kid… it’s just us.” He shuffles forward a little, holding his hands up.

Dipper grunts at him, sounding more like a deer than ever. Ford heard the warning note in his voice, and paused for a moment before scooting forward again. Suddenly, Dipper reared up, lashing his front hooves out threateningly. Ford was far enough away that it didn’t hurt him, but he recognized it for what it was- another warning. Ford stilled, allowing Dipper to calm down somewhat. His mind was racing, trying to figure out how to resolve this situation. Mabel had just talked to him, but he wasn’t exactly… her. But he would try.

“It’s alright. We don’t want to hurt you, please calm dow-.” The only warning he was given, was Dipper lowering his ears, and narrowing his eyes.

The next moment, Dipper scuffed the ground and charged. He was much faster than Ford had previously thought. Dipper was next to him in less than two seconds with his head lowered, aimed straight for his stomach. If he had antlers, Ford would be in serious trouble, but thankfully, he did not. Ford knew instinctively that he could not dodge him, but he didn’t want to hurt him. Time slowed to a near stop as Dipper came close enough to touch. Ford felt himself falling backwards, wings snapping open in shock. Dipper didn’t slow. Suddenly, Ford felt something wrap around his waist and yank him back and to the side. The young cervitaur stiffened in shock as his feet touched the ground, making him slide into the elevator. Ford felt his feathers brush against him as he slid past. It took him a moment to realize that the thing that had pulled him away from getting tackled by a thirteen year old boy was Stan’s tail, and that he blocked the elevator with his wing so that Dipper couldn’t get out. Dipper was now grunting angrily from behind his wing.

“How…?” Was the only thing that came out of his mouth, though he had many questions.

How was he so fast with his tail already? How did he time that so well? How… did he do that?!

Stan shrugged, then answered flippantly, “It’s just like bullfighting.”

What? “When have you ever been in a bullfi-”

Stan interrupted him nervously, wings twitching and tail swishing, “ANYway, he’s angry. Last time he was trapped and he calmed down just fine, so now he should calm down again.” A loud clack came from the elevator leaving Ford with no doubts that Dipper just bucked Stan’s wing.

Stan continued, ignoring the action, “Besides, we still need to get Pacifica her glasses. The snakes are getting pissed, and that will only scare Dipper further.”

He was not going to let this go, but he wasn’t about to argue with his brother’s logic, “Fine.”

Walking over to his desk, he started looking for the glasses. Which was proving to be difficult considering how cluttered it was. Papers were scattered everywhere and he wasn’t even sure what some of the jars contained anymore. He really needed some labels and a more efficient sorting system. Not that throwing everything on the desk was a sorting system to begin with, but this was just ridiculous. After unearthing a snowglobe, some notes that had been missing for around two months, and a map of Russia (which he didn’t know he had, or what it was for), he finally found them in a small box off to the side. Grinning at them, he swiped them up and made his way back to them.

He presented them proudly to Pacifica, “These nullify any effects of gorgon powers! It’s non-prescription -though you can make them prescription should you need to- with magic engravings on the frame! The engravings create a magical barrier that warps your powers, rendering them useless!”

“Huh. I would’ve thought that they would look like sunglasses.” Stan voiced as he looked at the glasses with doubt.

“It doesn’t need to hide the eyes, as the barrier simply disrupts the magic instead of blocking it. This way, she also doesn’t need to cover her snake.” Ford pauses for a moment, looking at the glasses critically, “Though I could make them sunglasses if she wants.”

“Nah, I’ll be fine with the regular glasses.” She interrupts, holding out her hand.

Beaming, he hands them to her, watching her until he realizes that she’ll have to take off her sunglasses. Hastily turning away, he heard the quiet clicking of Pacifica folding her sunglasses, then the near-silent brushing sound as she put the magical ones on. Wow. His hearing certainly wasn’t this good before. He’d have to test it… later. He heard her hood slip off, and her snakes stop hissing. He turned around again, certain that she had them on. They were a simple black frame, and were the right size, thank goodness. Pacifica blinked up at him, and upon realizing he hadn't turned into stone, grinned. Of course, in a moment of pure comedic timing, Dipper chose this moment to let out a long, mournful bleat. Everyone glanced at each other, and couldn’t help but laugh.

“Alright, alright kiddo,” Stan said, peering over his wing, “We’ll get you back to normal now.”

Another, smaller bleat.

“I hear ya, I hear ya. Listen, Mabel needs you right now. She’s still at the pool, right? Well, I have a small inflatable pool somewhere in this shack, and I need you to help me set it up. You can’t really do that right now, so I’m going to need you to calm down, okay kid?”

A small grunt, before a moment of silence. Stan then smiled and removed his wing, revealing a confused and still slightly scared Dipper. He walked slowly out of the elevator, and was shaking almost imperceptibly. Ford wondered how Stan knew he was back, until he saw Dipper give a shaky smile to Stan. Relaxing at this, Ford stepped easily back into the elevator, ready to go back up. He then stiffened as he realized that Dipper would probably freak out again. Opening his mouth to say something, though he wasn’t sure what, he was interrupted by Stan handing him Pacifica. Holy crap. She was heavy. He was guessing it was because of the tail.

Ford was so preoccupied with trying to hold her up, he didn’t see Stan’s hand snake in and press the button until the doors were already closing. The last thing Ford saw as the doors closed, was Stan kneeling down and talking to Dipper, even if he couldn’t quite make out the words. It was an awkward ride up, but it definitely beat Dipper freaking out again. He took wobbly steps out of the elevator, partly because of his transformation, and partly because of Pacifica. He was just proud that he didn’t topple over. The elevator took a second before going down again, so he could only assume that they were done with their conversation. After a moment, the doors opened again, and he heard them talking.

“... but if the plumbings down, how will we fill up the pool?” Dipper asked, now visibly calmer as he stepped out.

“Well, we can take the water from the stream, since it couldn’t possibly do more damage, or we could get Soos to fix it as soon as possible.” Stan responded, making gestures with his hands as his tail swayed.

“Hm. I don’t trust that water anymore. Let’s get Soos to fix the plumbing. I’ll head down into town, and get some supplies!” Dipper said enthusiastically, already trotting to the door.

He waved to them all, and in his excitement, slipped on the hardwood floors, making them laugh. Undeterred, he bounced back up and headed towards town.

“Not much stops that kid, huh,” Stan huffed out, grinning widely.

“Yeah,” Ford agreed amicably, “Now, could you please take Pacifica?”

Stan took her, but Ford couldn’t get him to stop laughing at him for about an hour.


	14. Chapter 14

Dipper didn’t know why he was surprised that life went on as normal. As it turned out, the townspeople were already in the streets, supporting those who could not walk, walking normally, or dragging themselves along. It was nice to see how they supported others, even if they still looked deeply uncomfortable with their own bodies. Well at least they were getting out and helping those who had difficulties walking. Turning the corner, he saw what he came into town for; a small pet shop at the end of the block. He made his way to it, curious about it since it was a relatively new addition to Gravity Falls.

Having never been in there, it was no surprise that his jaw dropped the moment he stepped in, not able to take another step. Colorful birds in medium to large cages were scattered around the shop, and clean animal corrals lined the walls neatly, many with various animals inside. Mountains of bagged food made an island in the middle of the room, and a collage of tanks with exotic and non-exotic fish was placed on the opposite wall from the door.

The floor was a short dark grey carpet, and the walls were a dusty blue, with ‘save the animals’ posters nearly covering them. Seeds surrounded the cages, though it was obvious that it was cleaned regularly. It was a fairly quiet shop, with the occasional call of an animal, or bubbles coming from the tanks. Short shelves were placed around the island, and held toys, cans of food, or accessories. A caged lizard peered down at him, and a small tabby cat with a bright green color flicked it’s tail from atop one of the shelves. If he had to describe it in two words, it would be ‘neat clutter’.

“Hello? Is there anyone here?” He called out, not seeing any employees.

A movement behind the counter caught his attention. What seemed to be a mound of grass and leaves began to shift ominously. It slunk upwards, allowing some dirt to cascade from its shoulders as it turned slowly. He shrunk backwards as what seemed to be a piece of the forest finished turning. Bright -almost neon- green eyes blinked at him, and unnaturally pale skin peeked from behind its thick hair.

Their cheeks were a light blue, but the temperature was warm in the small store. They had hair made out of a heavy moss that touched their hips, and a beard to match. Twin spiraling horns sprouted from it’s head, somewhat parting their hair. Their clothes were tattered, but modern, so he knew it was a townsfolk. That didn’t make it any less terrifying. Suddenly, their beard shifted up, their eyes crinkled, and Dipper saw a flash of white teeth. They smiled.

“Welcome to my pet shop! I haven’t seen you come in before, is it your first time here?” A voice that was deeper than Manly Dan’s spoke out from behind the curtain of moss.

The voice had a strange musical quality to it, and Dipper suddenly knew what they were. They were a leshy. Leshys were masculine presenting beings, commonly known for their love of their forest and any animal that went inside it. Leshys were typically fairy-like in that they could create glamours and were indifferent to humans unless bored or threatened by them.

Suddenly remembering that they’d asked a question, he hastily answered, “Yeah, it’s my first time here. Um, my sister turned into a mermaid and I want to get some stuff for her. What would we need to put her in an inflatable pool?”

“You’d need a filter, a water heater, an air pump, and possibly some sand. Man, I came here just a few months ago and I was not prepared for all this mythical stuff.” They responded, shaking their head while moving out from behind the counter, revealing shaggy bent legs with hooves, “When I heard about this place, no-one said anything about the magic here. I thought that I’d accepted it, but this is on a whole other level.”

Dipper winced, and was about to say something when the person continued with a shrug, picking up an air filter, “It’s actually kind of cool though, I can understand the animals now and talk to them, which is pretty much every animal-lovers dream. Even if it gave me a headache the first time I tried it. I also thought I was going crazy, but that’s nothing new.”

They then grinned at Dipper, “Well, at least I finally have an interesting story to tell my parents! They always say that I chose the ‘worst job’ in the ‘most boring town’, never believing me when I tell them about it. But this? This’ll really freak them ou- oh. Sorry, I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

“You’re good, I do it all the time. Sometimes I wonder why anyone hasn’t brought out the duct tape yet. Though now I wish I could see their expressions, because now you have proof! Revenge is totally underrated.” He pointed out, wincing when they tripped, barely holding themselves up with the help of a shelf.

“Oh man, you’re totally right, I should just show up back at home and surprise them. I might get in trouble, because I don’t exactly look myself right now, but it would so be worth it.” They seemed excited about the idea, eyes glowing brighter and beard lifting.

“If you do, you should probably keep on the down-low or proclaim cosplay or costume.”

“Good point. I would hate to be in the spotlight or put this town in any danger.”

“Anyway,” They stepped back behind the counter, putting the items next to the register, “This is what you’ll need for your pool, I also got some options of sand if you think she’ll want it.”

His eyes immediately caught on a large bag of hot pink sand, “Yeah, she’ll probably want some. Specifically that bag.”

They laughed, scanning it and putting the other sandbags down, “Favorite color, eh?”

Thinking about her room at home, completely pink to her actual dream bubble that was stained in the cheerful color, he didn’t hesitate, “Oh, yeah. She loves it.”

They just nodded and started to scan the items when Dipper had a sudden thought.

“Wait!” He blurted out, “Do you think the sand will ruin the inflatable pool?”

“Oh shoot, um… maybe? The bottom might wear down if the sand shifts a bunch, which is possible. Uh… oh! You could probably just put a tarp at the bottom of the pool. They are likely to be more resistant and you can replace it easier!” They paused, obviously thinking about if anything else could go wrong before they continued, “Also… I think that if clothes fibers get into the filtration system, it would eventually ruin it. Swimsuits are meant to be in water with filters and won’t break it, plus it’ll probably be more comfortable.”

Relieved that they thought of that, he replied, “Yeah, that works. Thanks.”

“No problem. Your total is fifty-two dollars.” They paused, looking at the register, “You know what, scratch that. I’m just going to give everyone dealing with their new bodies half off. Twenty-six dollars.”

That’s reasonable. They still have a business to run, and Dipper got the sneaking suspicion that if someone couldn’t afford it, they’d just give it to them. Luckily, he’d gotten a part-time job during school and had been saving up money, so he could pay. Though he knew that his grunkles will probably pay him back. Maybe. Hopefully. Ah, who was he kidding. Whatever, whether he does get paid back or not, he knows he’d empty out his bank account for Mabel. Pulling out his wallet from an inside pocket Mabel sewed in (she even put in the pocket for the journal!), he paid the worker and grabbed his bags. Turning around to head out, he felt a sudden wave of dizziness. His breath hitched in his throat- he couldn’t find the door. The room spun viciously around him as he tried to locate it.

The leshy’s voice cut though his panic, “Hey man, are you okay?”

Leshy. Fairy-like. It has to be a glamour. Pulling his jacket off, he flipped it inside out and put it back on. The world immediately righted itself.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Could you tell customers to flip some clothes inside out when they want to leave the store? It seems that you are accidentally causing glamours which disorient people.”

“Oh, yea, I’ll do that, thanks for telling me.”

“No problem.”

Slinging his bags over his deer back, he trotted out, heading to the clothing store. Intent on getting some swimsuits, he entered the store, quickly finding them on a rack near the front. But, at this point, he was lost. Sure, he knew what swimsuits Mabel might like, and since they were twins, he could figure out what size to get them, but would she be willing to give up sweaters? She loved sweaters, was it really okay to just… ask her to give them up? Even temporarily? A coil of unease dropped into his stomach, freezing his insides. What if it wasn’t that temporary? Like a few years? He didn’t want to take them away from her for that long, or ever, really. Absentmindedly, he slowly picked one off the rack, twisting it to see the back, when an idea struck him. Maybe… maybe she didn’t have to give them up after all.


	15. Chapter 15

Back at the shack, Dipper wandered into the living room while looking for Grunkle Stan to ask for his help in setting up the pool, when he came upon Pacifica, who now had a spray bottle in her hand. This in itself wouldn’t be -that- strange, but the stuff inside the bottle was a nauseating orange and bubbled threateningly. He wrinkled his nose at the sight of it alone, as it glowed in what could only be considered smug. He eyed it suspiciously, knowing that while it probably wouldn’t dissolve the bottle, it never hurt to be too careful. He probably made some noise of disgust, because Pacifica whipped her head towards him, having not known he was there. She became puzzled for a moment, before her expression cleared, and she looked at the offending bottle.

“Oh. This is supposed to turn people back from stone when I spray them.” Pacifica explained, though Dipper could see that she was also eyeing the bottle warily.

Just as he was about to reply, he noticed something very important that he didn’t see before. He only managed to stop his jaw from dropping by clenching his teeth as he stared at her. Pacifica… Pacifica had… she…. Oh. Oh gosh. She had thin, tiny snakes for bangs. This is officially the best thing he had ever seen. He’s fairly certain his face was going red as he tried his hardest to not laugh. Tears welled up at the corners of his eyes as he fought down the urge. Then one of the snakes flicked out a tongue and he nearly doubled over, cheeks puffing out as he tried to stifle his laughter.

Clearing his throat, he squeaked out, “That’s great, but how’re you going to get home?”

“Oh, no, not my parents. Ford went to turn them back so I could stay at the shack and learn how to move.” Quieter, she added, “It’s not fair to keep them frozen because of me.” She sounded as if she blamed herself, but Dipper couldn’t help but to relax.

Her parents are awful, okay? They almost never stop fighting now, and it’s taken a toll on her. Anyone could tell by the way she’d sometimes come to the shack, holding back tears as she collapsed onto the couch, curling into a ball. Or by the way she’d shy away from loud noises or voices. It was the way the fear flashed through her eyes when Stan or Ford came next to her after a particularly bad fight, but she also seemed to relax when she was with them. They were never sure what to do. Dipper suspected that it was because they were adults, but she also knew that they were kind and would literally fight her parents at the drop of a hat.

Dipper could not count the times that they’d offer to… _talk_ to her parents only for her to hurriedly shake her head and tell them she didn't want to make it worse. They always respected her decisions (even if they didn’t particularly want to), which only made her more comfortable around them. He supposed it was because she rarely got a say in anything else. Also, they never, ever raised their voices around her, and especially not in anger. So any chance for her to stay away from her parents was a good chance.

“Hey… don’t beat yourself up over it. We’re all new at this, and I don’t think a single person in this town can be blamed while they try to get used to it. This was all very unpredictable, and what we do on accident does not define us,” He reassured her, knowing that it would just get worse if he didn’t say anything.

She gave him a smile smile, “Thanks Dipper.”

“No problem.” He smiled back at her, when he remembered his shopping, “Hey… would you happen to know anything about sewing?”

~~~~~

As it turned out, she did not. And neither did Dipper. He spent five minutes just trying to thread the needle. The only way he got anywhere was when Stan showed up to ask about the pool stuff, saw what Dipper was working on and told him that he had to wet the thread before trying it again. It worked. Stan then took the pool stuff and took it outside (after Dipper told him to use a tarp) so that they could get things ready for Mabel. A few more minutes of stitching, and the thread came out of the needle. This is when he realized just how big the stitches were. On one particular one, he could stick two of his fingers through it comfortably. He tossed the fabric down in frustration, how did Mabel do this!?

There is no way that sewing could ever be considered ‘easy’. The people that claimed so are liars! Well, okay, maybe not all of them. Like professionals or grandmas, or just people who just had way too much time on their hands and decided to pick it up as a hobby. Why anyone would pick it up as a hobby, he didn’t know. Mabel did. He’d have to ask her sometime. Maybe people just got better at is as they grew up, like some kind of weird hidden talent that grew up with you. He’d once seen Mabel make a small quilt in thirty minutes flat, and thinking about it now, he wanted to make an award for her. Even back then, the speed shocked him, and thinking about it now, he kinda wanted to get her on ‘America’s Got Talent’.

If she didn’t win, he didn’t know what would. He wonders how well she would be able to sew when she got older. Anyway, the point is, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to sew the thing in time. Not without help. Well... Stan gave advice earlier, so he could ask him… but he’s busy with the pool. He bit his lower lip in contemplation. Ford… no. Dipper respected him and all but... not a chance. Dipper had seen Soos trying to sew something only for him to start playing with the string like a cat. Multiple times. Besides, with his practically melting hands, it was up in the air whether or not he could actually thread the needle in the first place. Dipper wasn’t counting on it. He wasn’t even going to consider Gideon.

He didn’t know if Wendy could sew or not, but, unfortunately, he couldn’t ask her. She was still at the pool with Mabel, probably keeping her company since she can’t go anywhere. So it came back to Stan, the only person available who knows how to sew. Fine. He probably won’t mind a few questions. Sighing, Dipper stood up shakily and made his way outside. What he wasn’t expecting to see was a giant hole in the ground, but there it was. A gush of water burst from the ground, and he heard a triumphant ‘aha!’ from somewhere in the hole. Curious but cautious, he slowly approached the hole. When Stan's head popped out without warning, he very nearly bolted, but managed to hold his ground.

“Uh, Grunkle Stan?” He questioned, seeing how his grunkle was covered in dirt.

“Yeah?” Stan, however, either didn’t notice or didn’t care how he looked almost like a sidewalk, and Dipper wasn’t going to be the person to bring it up.

“What’s with the hole in the ground?” He asked instead, making a small gesture with his hands, as if wasn’t obvious what he was talking about.

“Soos is fixing the pipes. We just found the leak.”

“...Could I ask you a few questions about sewing?”

“Yeah, sure, Soos is the one fixing it, so I got some free time.”

“Okay, so, how do you make sure that the string doesn’t come off the needle.”

Stan stared at him for an uncomfortably long moment, “You tie the ends together.”

“Oh.”

“Am I going to have to teach you everything?”

“N-no! I…I!... Okay, yeah, probably.”

Stan snorted as he hoisted himself out of the hole, “Alright kid, let’s get started, this is going to take a while.”

In the end, after being stabbed nearly a half a dozen times with the needle, almost slicing one of his fingers off, and managing to cut into his own clothes, Stan took over the project. He’d also banned him from sewing. And he’d promised him that he’d teach him how to sew, starting with basic safety and common sense. Dipper was… surprisingly okay with this. He probably needed to learn it sooner or later. Besides, Stan seemed to be in physical pain every time Dipper got hurt, and he didn’t want to make it worse. Plus, he was getting nowhere, and it had to be finished. Finally, it was complete, and it looked almost professional. Much better than Dipper would have done- regardless of how much time he spent on it.

“How are you so good at sewing? Those claws can’t be easy to use.”

“Heh. Well partly because of a mix-up in classes, so I had to take sewing, but mostly I was taught by my mom. And the claws aren’t too much of a problem- at least not compared to the rest of it. They’re just like long, pointy nails.”

“Yeah, I feel that.” Dipper responded as he gestured to his hoof.

They grinned at each other, both glad they didn’t have to go through it alone. Then the door slammed open, breaking the moment as Stan flinched, then glared at Soos, who had managed to break the door in half (the hinges hadn’t been fixed, but looking at the door pieces, they may have just saved some work).

Soos looked at the pieces a moment before he bellowed through the door frame, which made Dipper wince, “Dudes, it’s all fixed, so now you can set up the pool.”

~~~~~

Dipper wasn’t quite sure what the inflatable pool would look like, since it was fairly new, but for some reason, he didn’t quite expect… this. For one thing, it was big. And probably expensive. Which meant that it had been used for experiments by Ford, because Stan would almost never buy something that already has a community one. Like a pool. (It took them weeks to convince him to get a toaster. Why Gravity Falls _has_ a community toaster? No one knows.) So they had to thoroughly clean it out to get rid of any traces of past experiments before filling it up. The blue and white rectangular giant had to be placed at the side of the shack, because even though Stan had temporarily closed the shack to sort stuff out; tourists were still coming by.

After getting it set up, they debated the best way to transport her. In the end, they decided on doing what she’d done. Filling up a cooler with water and putting it on the back of a golf cart. Even though he wanted to go, Wendy still needed to be picked up and there were only so many seats in the cart. Normally he would just sit in between the two, since there was enough room, but with the added bulk of wings and his own deer body, he knew he wouldn’t fit. Besides, he does not want another freak-out like in the elevator. So, as he waited, he decided to check the pool once more to see if everything was in place. After checking that yes, everything had _not_ fallen apart in the amount of time he’d seen the cart off, he looked over the thing they had sewn.

He decided that it was fine the way it was, but something bothered him the more he looked at it. It wasn’t the object itself, per se, but something was bugging him, so he resorted to glaring at the fabric. That’s when he felt the familiar lump at his side and knew what was missing. Grinning, he sprinted (the best he could) into the shack, knowing that she’d love it. A few minutes later, he heard the cart pull up as he finished sticking together the rest of his gift. Perfect. He made his way back outside, just catching the sight of the two dumping Mabel into the pool.

Her head immediately burst back above the water as she gasped, “Is this pink sand!? It’s so pretty!”

She ran her hands through it and grabbed handfuls of it, pulling it out of the water and watching it fall back into the pool.

Dipper grinned and called out, “Hey dummy! I got some gifts for you!”

“Well, stupid, what are they?” She shot back, looking happy that he got stuff for her.

“First, I got you some clothes that won’t ruin your filter,” He explained as he brought out what he and Stan had sewn.

It was a simple pink swimsuit that had the bottom cut off, along with some purple sleeves that Stan had attached to it after Dipper cut them off of a mesh swimsuit cover-up. He thought it looked enough like a sweater, and evidently, so did she. Mabel squealed happily as he tossed it to her, hugging it tightly to her chest.

“Then, I put one of the waterproof covers we put on copies of the journal onto your scrapbook. Nothing short of holding it open and dunking it underwater will ruin it.”

“Thanks, idiot. But don’t you only put these on important books?” Her eyes were shining with gratitude and a hint of playfulness.

“Hey, I thought you were smarter than that. This is the **_most_** important book to me. Understand?”

Her eyes grew brighter than stars, “Yeah! Thanks dipdop!”


	16. Chapter 16

Apparently running to the pool with your sister on your back, coupled with a complete loss of control the next day took a lot of a person. What a wild concept. Dipper all but crashed into the pillow in the living room, taking a moment to appreciate that it was there. Because at this point, he’d rather become the gnomes queen than even attempt to walk up the stairs. Minutes ticked by as he tried to shift into a position that _didn’t_ hurt. Finally, he settled down, listening to Pacifica breathe from where she was on the couch. And yet… he couldn’t fall asleep. The room felt like it kept expanding, shifting into something foreign, cold, but not temperature-wise, and empty. His tired brain tried desperately to figure out why, but it wasn’t until he turned to say goodnight to Mabel that it clicked into place. He… wasn’t used to sleeping in a room without her. But he didn’t want to bug her, since she was probably just as tired. He’d just have to deal with it.

~~~~~~~

Mabel wasn’t having a good time. The days events were beginning to catch up to her and she still felt like she couldn’t quite process it all. _Everyone_ had turned into… monsters. Including her! It was strange to think about. But right now? She just felt alone. She supposed that it _could_ be worse. After all, it is a nice night out! The moon’s reflection in the pool made the water glitter and the trees whispered into the night. Some nocturnal creature yowled into the night, an oddly mournful sound. Maybe it was as lonely as she was. She rolled over, glaring at her sand. Her attempt at distracting herself was not going as well as she’d hoped. Well… on the bright-side she could breathe underwater now? That was pretty cool. Even if it did mean she couldn’t breathe air.

That didn’t help. At all. She drew her fin close to her face so she could study it. At least it was her favorite color? Don’t get her wrong, it was like a dream come true (literally!) but… she didn’t realize all of the downsides when she was simply fantasizing about it. Sighing, she pulled herself up so she could look at the shack. The shack seemed to stare back at her, familiar but almost a different world now. Just _looking_ at it made her chest hurt. She shook her head. There was no time to mope! She was Mabel Pines, and the Pines stay strong! She stared at the house for what felt like a lifetime, but was probably only a few minutes. She sighed, wondering what she was going to do. A clatter caught her attention, and she looked up to see Dipper, who was shaking like a leaf, stagger out of the front door- or at least it’s frame. Intrigued, she watched him stumble towards her, seeing his pause when he saw her awake, and then he continued.

When he was close enough, he spoke quietly, “Sleepover?”

She responded in kind, “Good idea.”

He all but collapsed next to the pool, pressing his backs to the plastic barrier. She drifted closer to him, then stopped and flipped onto her back so she could look at the stars. Her thoughts crowded heavily inside her head, making it impossible to close her eyes.

“Hey Dipper?” She whispered, half hoping he was asleep already.

“Yeah Mabel?” He responded sleepily and she saw the wall bend slightly as he moved closer to it.

“Do… do you think we’ll ever be normal again?” She asked it as if was a terrible question, and in a way, to her, it was.

“... I don’t think we were ever normal.” Came his reply, but there was a hint of understanding in his voice.

“Well, it’s like, I mean…” She started out haltingly, and then as if a dam broke, she wasn’t able to hold it back any longer, “I mean do you think I’ll ever be able to beat you in a race again? Will we ever be able to climb trees again? Will you ever freak out again when I get careless and fall out of the branches? Will I ever be able to _breathe_ again? Can I ever go back to school? I- I… I want to be one of the popular kids. Y’know, the ones who always look so cool and they always have so many friends and- and they fit in. ‘Cause… ‘cause I really just want to be normal for once. I don’t want to be the freak that people point fingers at. I want to be the girl that runs too fast and trips on a rock. Because even if I get hurt, I know I can get up again.”

She took a deep, shuddering breath, feeling the water rush through her gills and nearly gagging, “And I know this wasn’t fair for any of us, but I already _miss_ walking through the town and feeling my legs hurt because I didn’t want to stop walking to take a break. I want mom to teach me how to shave my legs, not because I think I need it, but because it’s another memory that I...” Her rambling broke off and she stared into the void between the stars, an ache thumping behind her chest.

“I’m sorry. This is pretty stupid.”

“It’s not.” She heard Dipper whisper, though with so much conviction, she almost believed him.

“And I dunno Mabel. Maybe we’ll never get to go to our school again, or even go to college. Maybe we won’t ever be able to leave this town, because at least here, we’re normal.” A moment of silence in which Mabel thought she was gonna cry, “But I do know we’ll always stick together. We can go to school here, and you’ll probably be the most popular girl there. You’ll win them over easily with your personality. You just _click_ with other people, though who knows how you do it. I know you’ll be able to beat me in a race again, because I’ll make a way for you to be on land again. Or we can race in the water.”

Another pause, but Mabel didn’t feel as close to tears, “I’ll climb trees with you on my back, and who knows! Maybe you’ll slip and I’ll panic and get the first aid kit. Or I can make a pulley system, because don’t you ever think that I’ll leave you behind. Because I won’t. And even if you never turn back, then I won’t either! Twins stick together. _We_ stick together. Whether we’re freaks, normal, popular or not, we have each others backs. No matter what.”

She sniffled quietly, a small smile on her face, “Mystery twins?”

“Mystery twins. Now go to bed, stupid head.”

She finally relaxed, mumbling back at him, “Night, dummy.”

~~~~~~~

“Psst! Hey, Dipper! Dipper!”

He came to slowly, awoken by his persistent sibling.

“...What?” He asked groggily, rubbing at his eyes.

“I want breakfast.”

“Maaa-bel. The sun isn’t even up yet!”

“Pretty please with kittens on top?”

“Ugh. Fine.”

Grumbling, Dipper stood up and then promptly fell over. His legs were shaking and sore, but he ignored that and got up again, albeit more carefully. Yawning, he stumbled towards the shack, noting vaguely that he could see better in the dark and absentmindedly scribbled it down on his arm. Making it inside after a few more blunders, he stopped suddenly when he heard the sound of teeth chattering. He felt his ears flick towards it and decided to follow them. He stepped into the living room cautiously, but when he only saw Pacifica, he moved more confidently. Even as he approached her, he knew something was wrong. Her lips were blue, even though she was buried under several blankets.

He touched her forehead gently, then drew back quickly, shocked at how cold it was. She hadn’t even moved since he’d gotten here. And most alarmingly, the chattering had stopped. Immediately, he began to panic.

“GRUNKLE FORD! GRUNKLE STAN!” He waited for an agonizingly long moment before calling again, “FORD! STAN!”

Could they not hear him? Would he have to go and find them? What if that took too much time and she…. Biting his tongue, he carefully moved the covers and slid in next to her, apologizing silently as he gently maneuvered in beside her, making sure they both fit on the couch. Pulling the blankets over them, he wrapped his arms around her, feeling the cold leech into his body as he warmed up hers. Shuddering, he curled up closer to her, glad they were friends now or else explaining this would be a lot more awkward than it’s going to be. Drifting off again, he felt faintly guilty that he couldn’t get Mabel something to eat. Hopefully she’d understand. Just before losing his battle to sleep, he thought, ‘A snake. How could we forget that she’s a snake.’

He awoke to screaming. Panicked, he flailed wildly, effectively knocking himself off the couch. From his place on the floor, he recalled the events of the previous night and wasn’t all that shocked to find that the source of the screaming was Pacifica. Quickly, he shut his eyes, realizing belatedly that she hadn’t had her glasses on last night, because, well, who could sleep in them? A pillow hit him square in his (human) stomach making him release all his air in a whoosh. She’s still screaming, and frankly, Dipper can’t blame her. She probably didn’t realize what had happened last night.

He’s almost wondering why no one has come to see what’s going on until he hears a tumbling from the stairs. Startled, he looks over and sees Ford completely tangled up in his blanket, and as he watches, he notices that his claws are caught in the fabric, and Ford can’t seem to free them. Next he hears the floorboards breaking and some improvisational words used in place of swearing. Stan barrels into the room, holes where he has stepped and a wild look in his eyes. Well at least Pacifica’s stopped screaming.

Before Dipper even gets the chance to explain, Stan started speaking (yelling really), “I knew something was wrong last night! What happened!? Is anyone hurt?!”

Thrown off, Dipper focused on the first part of the sentence, “Wait, you heard me last night?”

Stan looked uncomfortable at this, but when he spoke, Dipper heard fear hidden under his voice, “...not exactly. But I felt a weight pressing into my chest and I could tell it was important. I wanted to check it out but…” A pause before Stan visibly steeled himself and charged on, “I couldn’t move.”

“You couldn’t move?”

Again, Stan hesitated before talking again, “No. I tried, but nothing worked.”

Dipper’s mind flashed through what he knew about gargoyles, knowing that if Grunkle Stan knew something wrong, he wouldn't hesitate to help, “Gargoyles can freeze at will, usually during times of rest or inactivity. Since you don’t know how to control it, you couldn’t unfreeze.”

Ford broke in, stepping forward slightly, “Wait, Stanley, the first thing I learned about gargoyles is that they often remain conscious during periods of rest. If you don’t know how to control it, were you...?”

Stan’s wings grated against each other, and Dipper spoke again, horrified, “Grunkle Stan, did this happen the other night too?”

“Well, yes, but it’s not _that_  bad,” Stan said, and Dipper almost believed him… until he saw his tail swish in a way Dipper could only describe as forced casual.

He wanted to push it, but one look at his Grunkle’s face told him that that approach wouldn’t get him anywhere. So he bit down on his half-formed attempt to try and reach out, and turned to Pacifica instead, who had put her glasses back on while Dipper, Stan, and Ford were talking.

“I’m sorry that I did that without permission, but your lips were blue and you were cold to the touch. When I came in I saw you shivering, but then you stopped. I didn’t know what else to do.” He paused, hesitating over his next words, “I… wasn’t sure how much longer you could go without heat.”

She’d gone pale at his explanation, and Dipper winced when she spoke up, sounding afraid, “Th-thank you. And it’s fine. I just got a little… startled.”

They shared a smile, and then Dipper almost jumped out of his skin as he remembered he’d left Mabel in the pool.

“Stan! Can you help me make pancakes!?”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first bit of writing and I would love some feedback on it.


End file.
